HORMONES AND THE BRAIN

         There are countless differences between women and men which range from our anatomy to how we behave.But these differences start to occur in our brain and then shape our perceptions, behaviours and bodily movements.In terms of the structure of the human brain, the main criterium is the amount of testosterone. When we’re in the eighth week as a fetus, there is no distinction between the sexes; but after the eighth week, some of us are exposed to testosterone in the left hemisphere and as a result of it, this person becomes a male.It means, before the eighth week of our fetal development, we are all female.

       One of the effects of testosterone in our brains is  related to our central nervous system.Testosterone has a significant role in certain behaviors including aggression and dominance.With that, it also increases competitiveness and boosts self-esteem.According to a study which was conducted by Utrecht University,the level of testosterone is directly related with understanding human expressions and cognitive empathetic abilities.The scientists administered the experiment with a test whose name is ‘Reading The Mind in the Eyes’ to see the changes in the subjects’ ability to read emotions.In the experiments, scientists gave  some photographs to the participants and asked them what they felt about the people’s emotions in the photographs.Almost every woman predicted the emotions precisely. Then, the experimenters injected testosterone and showed other photographs to the participants to see the change.The new results were totally different from the former.The participants predicted the emotions of the individuals in the photograph inappropriately.This experiment demonstrated that the amount of testosterone is clearly linked with the ability to empathise and due to that,women are distinctly better than men.

       As a second difference between women and men, we can exemplify our ability to ‘hear’.First of all, we are using our hemispheres in different preponderances.For instance, the prepotency of the left hemisphere,which is responsible for hearing and speaking, is more than the right-hemisphere in women.Men use the right-hemisphere more predominantly.As a result of this biological fact,women are better at hearing than men.In order to pinpoint this truth about our brains, some physiologists conducted an experiment.In the experiment, male and female participants were asked to listen and state what they heard through an earmuff.The tricky side of this experiment was the participants were listening to two words from each side of the earmuff without their knowledge.The females realized the trick and stated  both words correctly; furthermore, they also mentioned which word came from which side of the earmuff.On the other hand, the males were unsuccessful even in understanding the words.Therewithal, they also mixed up the words: if the words were ‘sheep’ and ‘bottle’,they told the experimenters that the word was ‘shuttle’.

     The reason for this discernible difference in hearing between women and men might be about our obligations in nature.The woman who has sentimental communication with her baby, has to be good at hearing in order to understand the needs of the baby by the hums or meaningless words with which she tries to express her wishes for a short time.That is why a mother can differentiate the cry of a baby which can mean that she/he is hungry or needs to sleep.However, the sophisticated abilities of women in hearing and empathizing didn’t always affect their life in a good way.Especially in the Middle Ages, women were considered as witches and enchanters because of their powerful understanding and were punished by the Catholic Inquisition.

      Another difference between women and men is related to  our cognition.There is a common belief that men are better in the fields which require calculations and analytical thinking.Actually, there is some truth in this belief.According to an experiment which was done between males and females to understand their abilities

in three dimensional thinking and mental rotation, men are significantly better than women.In the experiment, participants were being asked to choose the image which was formed by seven squares among the other ones.The other images ,that were similar to the asked one, were turned to different positions and the answer which was tilted to the right was among the other options. At this point, our brain needs to use three dimensional thinking, which is related to the right-hemisphere. As it was mentioned before, men use the right-hemisphere predominantly.At the end of the experiment, both sides chose the right answer but it took 6-9  seconds to find the answer for women while it was 1-3 seconds for the males.This study and other related studies have shown that men are plainly faster than women in tasks which require three dimensional thinking.

        Our first difference emerges in our brain due to the level of testosterone and then starts to shape our anatomies, behaviours,abilities and perceptions.The amount of testosterone that we are exposed to during the fetal development also affects the level of our behaviors’ masculinity.It means, if you are exposed to less testosterone than the normal level as a man, your perception and cognition tend to be like female’s. Knowing all these differences between males and females, we should accept ourselves with our truths and shouldn’t regard these characteristics as something which makes us weak and less capable.

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