Functional sex differences in the human brain

Since the advent of functional MRI scans in the late 1980's, scientists have been able to study what areas of the brain are active when people engage in particular activities. These studies have shown that women and men process information, listen, read, and experience emotion in very different ways. We'll consider three examples: language, navigation, and emotion.

Language. Neuro-radiologist Joseph Lurito asked female and male volunteers to listen to a John Grisham novel. He mapped what areas of the brain "lit up" in each volunteer while they were listening. His findings, released in November 2001, were striking. Women use both the right and left hemispheres in processing language; men use only the left hemisphere.

Navigation. Psychologists have found that females and males use different strategies when they are navigating. Ask a woman how to get to a friend's house, and she may tell you something like, "Go down Elm Street till you see the McDonald's. Then make a left, go past the hardware store and the Exxon station, then you'll see the elementary school. Make a right just past the elementary school and go about another block till you see a split level house painted lime green, with these unbelievable fuchsia shutters and trim, can you believe it? It looks like a gingerbread house after the mold has gotten to it. That's their house." A man, giving directions to the same house, might say, "Go south on Elm Street about two miles, then turn left so you're heading east on Duke Street. After one mile on Duke Street, turn south again onto Scottsdale Boulevard. Their house is the fourth from the intersection, on the left." See the difference? Women typically navigate using landmarks that can be seen or heard. Men are more likely to use abstract concepts such as north and south, or absolute distance.

http://www.singlesexschools.org/research-brain.htm