The Male Brain, Louann Brizendine

In her own words, Dr Louann Brizendine comments on the difference between the male and female brains:

It’s a lot more like the female brain than you might have guessed. We both have the same brain areas and we make the same hormones. But the size of brain areas and the amount of certain hormones can differ quite a bit. You may not be surprised to hear that the male brain area for sexual pursuit is 2.5 times larger than the one in the female brain. But if you could spend a day experiencing things through “male-colored” glasses, you’d probably be amazed by how men see the world.

Brizendine has taken a lot of flack for her tendency towards generalisations and her simplification of research.  The studies she quotes don’t necessarily support the vehemence of her claims. But it’s too early to dismiss her altogether. Her breezy, accessible style attracts attention to an area of research still in its infancy. In the future, much of what she says will either be supported or discredited. What’s interesting here is that she’s examined age-old observations through a new lens, helping to popularise the field of neuroscience research. It’s now up to science to catch up.

Published in 2010 by Crown Publishing Group

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Dr Louann Brizendine is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and director of the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California. She has more than three decades of experience as a physician, psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist and has studied the female brain for the past 20 years. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and son.