The female brain: How it really works

Sex and the 20-second hug
I recently caught up with a university friend I hadn’t seen in 25 years. When I spotted him, my heart leaped and I hugged him. And hugged him. I felt reconnected. He looked a bit confused.

Little wonder. When it comes to men and women, not all cuddles are created equally. A 20-second hug floods the female brain with oxytocin, which creates such a sense of connection that University of New South Wales researchers in Australia are now using it to help troubled couples during therapy.

Men also release oxytocin through affection and tenderness, but their brains are more apt to link it to sex. In a recent fMRI study, Hamann showed university students sexually arousing pictures. Both sexes reacted, but the men’s amygdala and parts of the hypothalamus (parts of which govern sexual pursuit and which are twice as large in men as they are in women) lit up like Parliament Hill on Canada Day. In evolution, men had to have a quick response to visual stimulis. Males who didn’t have it also didn’t have the reproductive advantage, and they didn’t survive.

Spatial awareness
Jennifer Burkitt Hiebert tried – really tried – to give clear directions when her parents drove into Saskatoon recently to meet her for lunch. "I said, 'Go to the second McDonald’s on 8th St.' Mom was happy with that, but Dad? He wanted to know how many blocks and in which direction," she sighs. "I never know."

Funny, since Burkitt Hiebert’s University of Saskatchewan doctoral research deals with how testosterone affects spatial awareness. The male hormone "gives men an innate ability to find their way," she says. "They’re generally better at spatial tasks like map reading and using directions."

Women, on the other hand, navigate using visual landmarks. They tend to have better visual memory, verbal skills and fine-motor coordination, says Liisa Galea, associate professor in the department of psychology in The Brain Research Centre at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. "So a guy might notice he parked near the mall’s west entrance, but a woman will remember it was the entrance with the pink-shirt display."

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