Studies prove 'men are from Mars and women from Venus'

London, July 18: Men and women are brains apart. An assessment of recent neurological studies have suggested that male and female show differences in behaviour because their brains are physically distinct organs, proving the American psychotherapist John Gray's 'theory' that 'men are from Mars and women from Venus'.

According to a review of recent neurological studies appearing in New Scientist magazine, brains of men and women appear to be constructed from markedly different genetic blueprints, showing numerous anatomical differences.

The neurological studies suggests that many of the gender differences that were often explained by the role of sex hormones, or by social situation, are actually differences in the circuitry and the chemicals that transmit messages inside them. It has pushed scientists to conclude that the brains of the male and the female are physically distinct organs.

"The mere fact that a structure is different in size suggests a difference in functional organisation," Larry Cahill of the Centre for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, at the University of California, Irvine, was quoted as saying by The Independent newspaper of Britain.

Although it has long been known that there were some male-female differences, it was thought they were confined to the hypothalamus, the brain region involved in regulating food intake, fighting and the sex drive, among other things.

But it is becoming clear that the relative sizes of many of the structures inside female brains are different from those of males, the New Scientist review said.

A research at at Harvard Medical School found that parts of the frontal lobe, which houses decision-making and problem-solving functions, were proportionally larger in women, as was the limbic cortex, which regulates emotions, the report said.