Most of us have heard people say that adult men continue to behave like kids. Some also think that when it comes to couples, it is women who bring maturity to the relationship. Therefore, scientists decided to confirm if this widespread belief was true, and this is what they discovered.
A study conducted by the University of Oxford demonstrated that the maturation of the human brain is distinguished by a prolonged development of functional and structural network properties that extends into adulthood. The research had the objective of discovering which features transform during maturation and which ones stay the same. Scientists studied the brain of 121 participants between the ages 4-40 years old through brain imaging. Furthermore, they tracked the changes in the different functions while taking into account the age and gender of the participants.
The results of the experiment showed that while the brains of both men and women end up developing the same capabilities to operate in everyday life, men frequently demonstrate a delay in the prolonged development of functional networks compared to women. Women, though, show a more premature deterioration of those networks. That’s why it is said that men mature later in life than women.
On top of what’s been reported above, there’s even more data which confirms the greater efficiency of the female brain. Eduardo Calixto, a professor of physiology and pharmacology on the Faculty of Medicine at UNAM, explained in a recent publication that even though the brains of men are larger than those of women, the female one presents greater efficiency. For instance, it shows better memory, more neural connections, and a detailed perception of color and flavor. Calixto said all of this has hormonal origins.
Thanks to science, we can now say confidently that women and men’s brains function differently, which also explains the variations in behavior and degree of emotional maturity in people.
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