Explain Daphna Joel’s idea of the human brain as a “gender mosaic” and differentiate between female-leaning, male-leaning, and intermediate. What does this research indicate about there being a “male brain” and a “female brain”?

Question

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Answer 1

Daphna Joel calls the human brain a gender mosaic. Her research uses MRI scans of multiple brain regions, assessing the volume of each. Each region is then classified as female-leaning if, on average, it is larger in women, and male-leaning if it is larger in men. Regions that don’t show a male–female difference are termed intermediate. Her discovery is that most people have brains that are a mosaic of female-leaning, male-leaning, and intermediate regions. Very few women have brains with all female-leaning regions and very few men have brains with all male-leaning regions. This research contradicts beliefs that there is a “male brain” and a “female brain.”