Male and Female Brain Structures

Male and female are suggested to have different brain structures. How their brains work is significantly influenced by the connectivity of the brain itself, so-called connectome maps. In general, typical male brain connections run between the front and back parts of the same brain hemisphere, either in left or right hemisphere. On the one hand, many more neural connections for female go from side to side across the left and right hemisphere of the brain. The following image illustrates the distinctions between male and female brain structures (man and female's brain structures images - Bing images - Search Images)

What can we suggest from that finding in pertaining to language use among both sexes then? That difference leads to difference in the way how male and female use language. Male, with that brain structure, tends to focus on one particular issue and something logic. It can be illustrated by the fact that when a male meets his male friend, the issue that would be likely to be the topic of the discussion is related to sports, hobbies, and or jobs, rather than to emotional or intuitive stuff, as most of female do. They talk something logic. In terms of word counts, male tends to speak less than female. Even though some research findings indicate that the opposite is true, that pattern is typical. 

In some cases, however, a male doctor show more frequent interruption than female doctor, opposing the previous view that female tends to interrupt more frequently than male. The male doctor 'can't' actually wait the first speaker to complete his/her utterance. They are so curious and to some extent, want to argue about the issue at hand. 

Female, on the other hand, tends to have better verbal skills and intuitive abilities. Once female meet her female friends, most of the topics they talk are related to emotional stuff, such as their love relationship condition or family condition. They are going to share about their emotional states even love to gossip. Sadness in their relationship is a triggering topic to elaborate as her female friend would be likely to give more positive feedback. It means that once she shares her love personal experiences, she dives into the issue even deeper. This definitely allows them to activate more related words with that personal experience. The activated vocabularies will connect to other vocabularies stored in the hub of mental lexicon. 

Furthermore, the good verbal skills that the female has could be a strong point to children language development. This is because a mother can offer more stimuli for children to talk. She can respond the children's questions further. She can give further elaboration to the children's question. She can have more questions to her children to stimulate them to talk. Even though it is done mostly unconsciously, this typical interaction can store, assimilate, activate and develop children's vocabulary accretion. 

Compared to a typical father (male) who tends to speak less than a mother, it is a rare phenomenon in which the stimuli frequently come from a father. Rather than verbal stimuli that the father offers, he tends to invite his children to have physical activities such as playing football (the types of physical activities may vary from one to the next). That point actually offers fewer opportunities to have a verbal production. 

Interesting finding, however, is important to look at. Wheeling (2015)* finds the brains of men and women aren't really that different. Two years later, Price (2017)* suggests the opposite. Accordingly, some significant differences between men and women in brain found. It is believed that men's brain is 10% bigger in size than women. It is, however, unclear that the size is directly associated with quality, the level of intelligence for instance. It can be exemplified by the fact that in many university and school cases, female students tend to achieve a better academic performance. 

Understanding the different brain structures between male and female is very important. This can help us to maintain and develop healthier communication to reach communicative goals. Some time, female will talk something that is considered unnecessary, in male's perspectives, such as the prices of the stuff she just bought. For female, this could be an important topic to discuss as this can compare and contrast from other buyers, or it is simply informative. In addition, the information that female provides, can go further as required. For example, if one asked "How much does it cost?, they will give more information more than what expected. That covers not only the exact price, but also her consideration to buy it, and finally her decision to buy it. Therefore, understanding how female and male use language in different ways can minimize the potential and unnecessary conflicts between them. Your personal reflections to this issue will shed further light on the relationship between gender and language. 

*Price, M. (2017). Study finds some significant differences in brains of men and women. It can be retrieved from Study finds some significant differences in brains of men and women | Science | AAAS. 

*Wheeling, K. (2015). The brains of men and women aren't really that different, study finds. It can be retrieved from The brains of men and women aren't really that different, study finds | Science | AAAS.