As I was reading page 361, I was fascinated by the finding that the right hemisphere is more responsive to emotional stimuli than the left brain. I was also interested in the changes that happen to someone after damage to the right temporal cortex such as unable to identify emotional expressions. Damage to this part of the brain sounds devastating not being able to feel different emotions or to differentiate between emotions. Reading this information made me think out of the box a bit. Everyone knows that women are more emotional than men, so I decided to look into that and see what are some of the differences that support the fact that there is indeed an emotional difference between men and women. Are women's right brains bigger than that of men? Is there a chemical difference between the brains of men and women? Or do they use different parts of the brain to help establish a variety of emotions? I searched through several different articles to gather information on the many differences between the gender brains.
Since there is a difference between male and female brains chemically, hormonally, and physiologically, this will determine why men and women think, behave, and feel differently. Men do have a larger brain mass than women considering their difference in body structures. Men also have more grey matter than women and women have more white matter than men. This means that since women's brains are smaller and use more white matter, the cells are much closer together and are able to make faster connections compared to the grey matter used in the larger male brain. This is important in determining facial expressions. Women are better and differentiating the difference between a mad and sad face rather than men having a little more trouble separating the two facial emotions. Another important difference I found was that the limbic system, associated with feeling emotions, is smaller in males and larger in females. This would have a lot to do with the difference in emotions between the genders.
I found an interesting article explaining five differences between male and female emotional brains. Although the article makes reference to buying a house, you are able to get the gist of how the gender brains differ from one another in a variety of aspects of life emotionally.
I wonder if a woman who suffers damage in the right temporal cortex, is still able to feel at least some emotion or she looses the ability to identify emotion, since the cells in the white matter are much closer together than in a male. Since the cells are closer together, would they be able to compensate each other?
ReplyDeleteI love your article! It is true that women are more emotional than men and can detect ones tone of voice and the emotions of the person who they are conversating with. Is it possible with texting? Would a one word response help us detect an emotional problem within them?
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