中英对照：大脑结构男女有别.docxVIP

中英对照：大脑结构男女有别 More Differences Between Brains of Men and Women Scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered striking differences between men and women in a part of the brain linked with ability to estimate time, judge speed, visualize things three-dimensionally and solve mathematical problems. The differences, the researchers say, may underlie well-known trends that vary by sex, such as the fact that more men than women are architects, mathematicians and race-car drivers. In a study reported this week in the journal Cerebral Cortex, the researchers show that a brain region called the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) is significantly larger overall in men than in women. The area is part of the cerebral cortex and appears on both sides of the brain just above ear-level. Also, theres a symmetry difference, with men having a larger left IPL than right. in womenin the study, its the right IPL thats somewhat larger, though the difference between the two sides of the brain is less obvious than in men, says psychiatrist Godfrey Pearlson, M.D., who headed the project. This is the same part of Albert Einsteins brain that was particularly large, says Pearlson, Scientists have noticed this region is also larger in the postmortem brains of other physicists and mathematicians. In the study, researchers reviewed MRI-scans of the brains of 15 closely matched men and women. They used new computer software created by Hopkins psychiatrist Patrick Barta, M.D., Ph.D. to compare overall IRL volume by gender. The software lets scientists highlight the IRL by painting it in on computer images of each subjects brain; it then calculates a highly accurate volume. Researchers also compared IRL volumes on the left and the right sides of the brain. After allowances for mens larger overall head and brain size, men had roughly 6 percent more IRL tissue than women. The inferior parietal lobule is far more developed in people than in animals and has evolved relatively recently, says Pearlson. It