Brain Rules (Updated and Expanded)

Relating too much information, with not enough time devoted to connecting the dots

Meaning before details.

Men’s and women’s brains are different structurally and biochemically—men have a bigger amygdala and produce serotonin faster, for example—but we don’t know if those differences have significance.

Women are genetically more complex, because the active X chromosomes in their cells are a mix of Mom’s and Dad’s. Men’s X chromosomes all come from Mom, and their Y chromosome carries less than 100 genes, compared with about 1,500 for the X chromosome.

our evolutionary history, having a team that could understand both the gist and details of a given stressful situation helped us conquer the world. Why would the world of business be exempted from that advantage? Having an executive team or work group capable of simultaneously understanding both the emotional forests and the trees of a stressful project, such as a merger, might be a marriage made in business heaven. It could even affect the bottom line.

Women tend to use both hemispheres when speaking and processing verbal information. Men primarily use one. Women tend to have thick cables connecting their two hemispheres. Men’s are thinner. It’s as though females have a backup system that males don’t. Researchers think these neuroanatomical differences may explain why language and reading disorders occur approximately twice as often in little boys as in little girls. Women also recover from stroke-induced verbal impairment better than men.

The right side of the brain tends to remember the gist of an experience, and the left brain tends to remember the details.

Many of these pathologies are caused by mutations in any one of 24 genes in the X chromosome. As you know, males have no backup X. If their X gets damaged, they have to live with the consequences. If a female’s X is damaged, she can often ignore the consequences.

sex will generally refer to biology and anatomy. Gender will refer mostly to social expectations. Sex is set into the concrete of DNA. Gender is not.

Prematurely born infants, living in a hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), gained weight more rapidly when music was played. Music helped them learn how to suck at their mothers’ breasts more readily. It also reduced their overall stress levels, which may explain the other findings. One study found that female (though not male) infants’ stay in the unit would be decreased by 11 days if music were played, compared to no music. It is now standard for hospitals across the country to pipe calm, peaceful music into their NICUs.