Change Your Brain Every Day - Women Have More Active Brains Than Men: World’s Largest Brain Study

Episode Date: August 23, 2017

Amen Clinics recently published the largest functional brain imaging study to date, examining the differences between the brains of men and women. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen discuss the gender differences in how our brains are wired.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD, and addictions. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives for three decades using brain spec imaging to better target treatment and natural ways to heal the brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Hey, welcome back. Today, we're going to talk about a study we published here at Amen Clinics. When did this come out? It just came out the beginning of August in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. It's actually the largest brain imaging study ever published on gender-based differences.

Based on 46,034 scans, we looked at the differences between the male and female brains. Uh-oh. And why we published it in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease is women get Alzheimer's disease. Two-thirds of the cases are women. So is that because women live longer? Is it because... Partly, because they live longer. But for some reason, it seems they also produce more

of something called beta amyloid plaques and can negatively impact their brain. reason it seems they also produce more of something called beta amyloid plaques and can negatively impact their brain so and it seems to happen more after menopause and the lack of estrogen okay and the lack of progesterone that happens but the study was really fascinating. Now I've been doing brain spec imaging for the last 26 years. So at Amen Clinics, we've seen over 130,000 scans on people from 111 countries. So this is not new information for us, but I've always noticed that female brains are more active. Really? They're busy.

All you have to do is like watch a guy with a remote control in his hand watching TV and you kind of know that they're like mostly braindead. I don't mean that as an insult, but it's pretty funny. So it's like they don't hear what you say. So you've just offended half of the population. No, it's funny. Like you can talk to them. Like I'll say something to you.

If you're watching basketball or tennis, like you don't hear what I say. You're like totally focused on the TV. You know, and I don't know when you're going to be listening to this podcast, but it was today. The guy, the guy that wrote the manifesto at Google on why diversity is a bad thing. And women don't make as good of engineers, got fired at Google today. And it's actually his manifesto that I wouldn't agree with,

that what we found in this study is that the female brain is wired for leadership. Oh, interesting. The female brain is much more active in the prefrontal cortex. Now, why is that important? The prefrontal cortex is the third of the brain. It's the largest part of the human brain.

We think it's actually the part of the brain that makes you human because it's involved with executive functions like focus and forethought and judgment. Well, if you think about what it takes to be a mother and run a household, that makes sense, right? You're like, your brain never shuts off. I mean, I'm asleep and I'm thinking about like, you know. And that didn't happen actually before you had Chloe. No, no.

Your brain got rewired. Absolutely. Through pregnancy. And I became way more anxious, focused focused looking behind me all the time thinking about six things at once yeah I wasn't like that before I had Chloe so from an executive standpoint if you think of focus forethought judgment impulse control organization planning empathy learning from the mistakes you make that's what makes a good mother absolutely but it's also what makes a good ceo right um you know often children sort of disrupt uh professional

pathways i mean disrupts maybe the wrong word but i mean that's what what happens i mean you take a break uh well i know so i'm just and this is really going to irritate some women. But interestingly enough, so I loved my job before I got pregnant, loved my job. And no one thought that I would ever give up my career to be a stay-at-home mom, including me. I never thought I would do that. So something weird happens when you have a baby. We know this. So I was no way going to do that. I was the least likely person to do that

had a nanny lined up and i had that baby and bam was never going to happen i was never going to leave her with someone i didn't know it was not going to happen i would sell my house before that would happen so something odd called oxytocin. Right. It's like the weirdest feeling, though. It's a bonding cuddle hormone. Right. And what we also found was the limbic brain in females was dramatically more active than in males. I mean, highly statistically, clinically significant. And so if we just talk about those two areas of the brain,

so the prefrontal cortex, and the one statistic that really just hammers this home is who goes to jail. Right. Males, 14 times more than females. And if your prefrontal cortex is lower in activity, there's a higher incidence of substance abuse. There's a higher incidence of ADHD. There's a higher incidence of behavior issues, of saying things you actually shouldn't say. When I lecture,

I often will go, how many people are married? And half the audience or more will raise their hand. And we're married. Really? We are. I'm grateful. Thank you. And I'll go to the married people.

Should you say everything you think? Dear Lord, no. And the whole audience laughs because it's funny. But you absolutely should not say everything you think in a relationship. You need breaks on those frontal lobes. Right. Jerry Seinfeld once said the brain is a sneaky organ. Right.

We all get weird, crazy, stupid, sexual, violent thoughts. It's like, oops, did that get out? That no one should ever. I saw it today. It was on the news. I think it was in London. This woman was running down a path. And to her side, there's a bus.

And the guy running by just all of a sudden reaches out and pushes her. Oh, no. In front of the bus. Now, she didn't get hurt, but they're looking for that guy. It's not an unusual thought to go, oh, I should do that. It's a very unusual thing for someone to actually act out. That Taylor Swift is in court today because she was at a meet and greet. And she said she took a picture with this DJ

and while she was there, he grabbed her butt. And he said that he didn't do it and she's ruined his life. And she said he did it. But I can guarantee you at meet and greets that more than one guy has thought about grabbing her rear end. See, I would end up being the one in trouble if that happened to me. But you don't do it because it's inappropriate.

Right. And your prefrontal cortex is the brake that stops you from doing every stupid thing you think. Right. So it works harder. women are better at that. I mean, not when they're drunk, right? Because that drops the prefrontal cortex. But when it's overactive. Now, so when women,

it is more likely to be overactive. Now, we scanned our daughter, and holy moly. It was very bad. Very bad. And that fits her. She, we scanned our daughter and holy moly. It was very, very. And that fits her. She's always anxious. Thinks she's all she has this chronic. But you can use it like she does.

You can use it in a good way. Right. To make sure you get stuff done early. Little OCD. You say you're going to be on time, that you're on time. Or early. Yeah. But that's that can be a great trait.

Which is why women can be a great trait unless it gets out of control. Which is why women can be good leaders. But what I wanted to ask you is, yes, they can be good leaders, but at what point does it make them vulnerable to problems? Well, and females are also more vulnerable to anxiety and depression. Right. To eating disorders. Right, that little OCD. Body dysmorphic disorder disorder to body image things and and the treatment for women my

experience is often different than the treatment for men I mean here at Amen clinics we believe we should actually look at your brain before we treat it so we know what's going on in your brain. But by and large, that's what we see. Female brains, much more active. And the exciting news from the study is imaging can really give you more information to specifically help your patients and there is not one thing i've seen in the brain that goes oh well women wouldn't be good at that so that the gender bias but i could see where it would help you to go okay so if i have a busy brain, if I'm anxious, these would be my strengths. Like I like to be early. I like to be organized. I like to be, it really bothers me

when people aren't. But it could also help me with, okay, what are my vulnerabilities? It really bothers me when people aren't. And so I have to be careful in how I handle that. Or I am more prone to depression and anxiety. And knowing that can be very helpful. Also, what about, so with women, you know, I mean, this is a really interesting study. So with talking about leadership, how are women with, because if you're a CEO, you got to fire people. And it's harder. That's my question. Because collaboration, they're often much better at that, and bonding, and so letting people go can be harder.

Now, not for everybody. Not for me. But you don't like it. I don't like it. I know you don't like it. I don't like it, but if you can make it. The other interesting part of the study we found in the male brain that the visual centers and the coordination centers were more active right um so does that mean they'll be better at throwing and catching a football probably um is it will they be better at shooting a gun? Maybe.

But you're great at shooting a gun. And our daughter is great at shooting a gun. She's got amazing hand-eye coordination. Just because one gender has a tendency to be this way or that way, it clearly doesn't mean everybody's like that. And yes, boys are diagnosed with ADHD five times more than girls. But when girls have it, it's so important to treat it because left untreated, it will devastate their lives. So if you get on amenclinics.com, you can read our paper

and learn more about the differences between the male and female brain. Thanks for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Stay with us. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Go to iTunes and leave a review and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing to get a free signed copy of The Brain Warrior's Way and The Brain Warrior's Way cookbook we give away every month.