It was hailed as proof at last: for the first time, brain differences between the sexes had been found to be innate and identifiable in babies in the womb. Scientists at New York University Langone had successfully conducted scans of foetuses to look for changes in the connectivity of their
The truth about 'male' and 'female' brains
Subscribe to listen
Research has shown that biology plays an important role in the nature of the brain. Photo / Getty Images
So began what I call the "hunt the difference" agenda. Over the years, studies have compared how groups of males perform certain tasks compared to groups of females, and report what kind of differences they've found. But what such research always fails to account for is the fact that these brains have been socialised, conditioned, and changed by the environment they've existed in. It rests on the premise that we can see there are differences between men and women, and that these differences must have been hard-wired from birth.
Arguing against this theory, as I have, does not always win you lots of friends. My work as a professor of cognitive neuroimaging, which has led me to appear on programmes including No More Boys and Girls, and to write a new book, The Gendered Brain, which seeks to dismantle the idea that one might exist, has led to my being called a "sex difference denier", a label that I fully reject. Of course there are biological differences between men and women, but what we need to understand is the additional part that environment plays – even from the first hours we spend in it.
The world makes a significant impression on our brains from the get-go, and even very young children have been exposed to cultural expectations and conditioning; their plastic, flexible minds affected by everything around them. It is virtually impossible to disentangle what is nature and what is nurture.
Any brain you look at will be different from any other, as each will be a product of the sum of its experiences. Our position in the family, what school we went to, what toys we played with, our occupations, our hobbies - all these things and more will play a part in shaping the brain, not just in infancy but right throughout our lives.
So often people look at gender gaps - the under-representation of women in science, for instance, or a man's superior spatial awareness - and try to claim this proves male brains are inherently different from women's. It may sound plausible, but the evidence isn't there to support it.
I would argue that any discernible differences found in men's brains compared to women's comes from a combination of differences in biology and experiences. So if a boy has grown up playing video games, this will shape the development of his brain, and may make him better at some tasks. Just as when you learn a language or a musical instrument, or do a Sudoku or crossword puzzle every day, neural pathways are strengthened when they're exercised, and also become weaker when such exercise ceases. It's known as the brain's plasticity, and it cannot be overlooked.
Ignoring this not only skews the scientific findings about brains, it can also have many repercussions socially. If you believe that the sexes have innately different skills, this logically extends to a belief that it is pointless to encourage people to break out of the boxes we've created for them. Thus the lack of women in science is excused by women's supposed inferior scientific ability – an argument that ignores the social context in which such things occur.
The ongoing discussions around transgender issues bring all these questions to the fore. When I say there's no such thing as an innately gendered brain, this does not play well with certain people.
Perhaps gender irrelevance is what we should be aiming for. Let's get away from the idea that your brain is in some way hard-wired to be female or male, to determine your skills and aptitudes, your role in society. Brains reflect the lives they have lived, not just the sex of their owners. The sooner we accept this reality, the more all of us can realise our potential.
*As told to Rosa Silverman