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9/8/14, 3:51 PMThe New Sex Scorecard | Psychology TodayPage 1 of 6http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200306/the-new-sex-scorecardSafari Power SaverClick to Start Flash Plug-inAlthough sex differences in brain and body take their inspiration from thecentral agenda of reproduction, they don't end there. "We've practicedmedicine as though only a woman's breasts, uterus and ovaries made herunique -- and as though her heart, brain and every other part of her bodywere identical to those of a man," says Marianne J. Legato, M.D., acardiologist at Columbia University who spearheads the new push ongender differences. Legato notes that women live longer but break downmore.Do we need to explain that difference doesn't imply superiority orinferiority? Although sex differences may provide ammunition for DavidLetterman or the Simpsons, they unfold in the most private recesses of ourThe New Sex ScorecardMen's and women's minds really do work differently -- but not on everything.By Hara Estroff Marano, published on July 01, 2003 - last reviewed on August 26, 2010Get out the spittoon. Men produce twice as much saliva as women. Women, for their part, learn tospeak earlier, know more words, recall them better, pause less and glide through tongue twisters.Put aside Simone de Beauvoir's famous dictum, "One is not born a woman but rather becomes one."Science suggests otherwise, and it's driving a whole new view of who and what we are. Males andfemales, it turns out, are different from the moment of conception, and the difference shows itself inevery system of body and brain.It's safe to talk about sex differences again. Of course, it's the oldest story in the world. And the newest.But for a while it was also the most treacherous. Now it may be the most urgent. The next stage ofprogress against disorders as disabling as depression and heart disease rests on cracking the binarycode of biology. Most common conditions are marked by pronounced gender differences in incidenceor appearance. Joan Rivers didn't lean in. Or lean on. She trudgedon, a hero for every working woman. Hara Estroff Marano Find a TherapistSearch for a mentalhealth professionalnear you.City or ZipJust Say ItWhen and how should we open upto loved ones?MORE FROM THIS ISSUEISSUE ARCHIVESSUBSCRIBECurrent IssueHome Find a Therapist Topic Streams Get Help Magazine Tests Psych Basics Experts142LikeLikeStumbleUpon28TweetTweet184ShareShare9/8/14, 3:51 PMThe New Sex Scorecard | Psychology TodayPage 2 of 6http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200306/the-new-sex-scorecardlives, surreptitiously molding our responses to everything from stress tospace to speech. Yet there are some ways the sexes are becoming morealike -- they are now both engaging in the same kind of infidelity, one thatis equally threatening to their marriages.Everyone gains from the new imperative to explore sex differences. Whenwe know why depression favors women two to one, or why the symptomsof heart disease literally hit women in the gut, it will change ourunderstanding of how our bodies and our minds work.The Gene SceneWhatever sets men and women apart, it all starts with a singlechromosome: the male-making Y, a puny thread bearing a paltry 25 genes,compared with the lavish female X, studded with 1,000 to 1,500 genes. Butthe Y guy trumps. He has a gene dubbed Sry, which, if all goes well,instigates an Olympic relay of development. It commands primitive fetaltissue to become testes, and they then spread word of masculinity out tothe provinces via their chief product, testosterone. The circulating hormonenot only masculinizes the body but affects the developing brain, influencingthe size of specific structures and the wiring of nerve cells.But sex genes themselves don't cede everything to hormones. Over thepast few years, scientists have come to believe that they too play ongoingroles in gender-flavoring the brain and behavior.Females, it turns out, appear to have backup genes that protect theirbrains from big trouble. To level the genetic playing field between men andwomen, nature normally shuts off one of the two X chromosomes in everycell in females. But about 19 percent of genes escape inactivation; cellsget a double dose of some X genes. Having fall-back genes may explainwhy females are far less subject than males to mental disorders fromautism to schizophrenia.What's more, which X gene of a pair is inactivated makes a difference inthe way female and male brains respond to things, says neurophysiologistArthur P. Arnold, Ph.D., of the University of California at Los Angeles. Insome cases, the X gene donated by Dad is nullified; in other cases it's theX from Mom. The parent from whom a woman gets her working genesdetermines how robust her genes are. Paternal genes ramp up the geneticvolume, maternal genes tune it down. This is known as genomic imprintingof the chromosome.For many functions, it doesn't matter which sex genes you have or fromwhom you get them. But the Y chromosome itself spurs the brain to growextra dopamine neurons, Arnold says. These nerve cells are involved inreward and motivation, and dopamine release underlies the pleasure ofaddiction and novelty seeking. Dopamine neurons also affect motor skillsand go awry in Parkinson's disease, a disorder that afflicts twice as manymales as females.XY makeup also boosts the density of vasopressin fibers in the brain.Vasopressin is a hormone that both abets and minimizes sex differences;in some circuits it fosters parental behavior in males; in others it may spuraggression.Sex on the BrainRuben Gur, Ph.D., always wanted to do the kind of psychological researchthat when he found something new, no one could say his grandmotheralready knew it. Well, "My grandmother couldn't tell you that women have aFind Local:AcupuncturistsChiropractorsMassage TherapistsDentistsand more!City or Zip9/8/14, 3:51 PMThe New Sex Scorecard | Psychology TodayPage 3 of 6http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200306/the-new-sex-scorecardhigher percentage of gray matter in their brains," he says. Nor could sheexplain how that discovery resolves a long-standing puzzle.Gur's discovery that females have about 15 to 20 percent more gray matterthan males suddenly made sense of another major sex difference: Men,overall, have larger brains than women (their heads and bodies are larger),but the sexes score equally well on tests of intelligence.Gray matter, made up of the bodies of nerve cells and their connectingdendrites, is where the brain's


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