Listen Up ! Men Hear Differently Than Women

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Listen Up! Men Hear Differently Than Women

By M. Mary Pennell

CHICAGO (Reuters Health) - While men and women may ``hear'' the same thing, they don't actually listen in the same way, according to results of a small study.

Apparently men listen with just one half of the brain, while women listen with both, according to a report presented here Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

In the study, Dr. Joseph T. Lurito of Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, used a type of brain scan known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The researchers looked at brain activity in 20 healthy volunteers--10 men and 10 women--while they listened to an audiotape of ``The Partner,'' a best-seller by novelist John Grisham.

``In almost all cases, the brains of men showed activity exclusively in the left temporal lobe,'' Lurito said. On the other hand, women showed brain activity in both the right and left temporal lobe of the brain.

The right temporal lobe is associated with listening and speech. The left temporal lobe is associated with performing music and spatial relationships, Lurito explained.

In an interview with Reuters Health, Lurito said he discovered the different listening patterns by accident when he was trying to develop a brain mapping technique that could be used by neurosurgeons operating on the speech and language centers of the brain.

When he checked the initial ``listening'' scans, he found ''that there was something very different happening between men and women.''

The finding is not just an interesting factoid for brain researchers, but is being used by brain surgeons.

Gender-specific maps of these listening centers have ''already been used in performing operations on four patients who had lesions located within the regions identified by our scans,'' he said.

Lurito and his colleagues plan additional studies to determine if the activity seen on both sides of women's brains may ``explain the differences in language development between males and females or if it suggests that females may be capable of 'multi-tasking'--actually listening while performing another task.''

-- cin (cin@=0.)), November 28, 2000

Answers

I'm sorry, did you say something dear?

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), November 28, 2000.

This is a survival technique. If we men were to listen with both halves our brains would come out of our ears and we would be dead.

-- SydBarrett (dark@side.moon), November 28, 2000.

Oh is that right? mm hmm

-- cin (cin@=0.)), November 28, 2000.

Left and right brain? Oh, you mean 'nads.

-- (nemesis@awol.com), November 28, 2000.

So this is why my wife can never tell me what I said that upset her, but she always tells me it was "my tone of voice" - a tone I had no inkling of.

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), November 29, 2000.


<"Apparently men listen with just one half of the brain">

<``In almost all cases, the brains of men showed activity exclusively in the left temporal lobe,'' Lurito said

This not not news to the majority of females. It is fact of the male anatomy, in my experience. The work comes from trying to engage the other half wherein one finds the difficulty.

So, it's not that we don't love ya fellas, but your gonna have to engage your brains ENTIRELY!

-- Aunt Bee (Aunt__Bee@hotmail.com), November 29, 2000.


but your gonna have to engage your brains ENTIRELY!

-- Aunt Bee

But Aunt Bee, we are so used to hearing women's voices, that we have naturally developed the technique of only needinghalf a brain to listen to and interpret what is being said. :-)

-- Malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), November 29, 2000.


Well this explains a lot! Of course we can listen and perform tasks at the same time we're MOTHERS!

It would also explain why "Communication" or lack thereof, is the leading cause of all divorce. FWIW, - Jesse.

-- Jesse (wearyhobo@direct.ca), November 29, 2000.


Wait a minute! I thought the men thought with their other head. So sorry, couldn't help myself. :D

Research continues to find how different the sexes really are.

Jesse, so true, communication is the key and Brian, it is how you say it. Tone more than anything drives the listener's reaction. This is exactly what makes me crazy about Gore. (sorry to bring politics into it) When he speaks, he seems so condescending.

BTW Unk, thanks for a new gathering place!

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), November 29, 2000.


GOAL: Always, always engage the heart and disengage the ego while listening to a loved one. For then the harsh words one hears become less so, the sweet somethings become even sweeter yet.

Doesn't seem to fit in with the over-all mood of giddiness here, but what the hell, it's all I got at the moment. Take it FWIW.

-- Rich (howe9@shentel.net), November 29, 2000.



That was sweet Rich.

You can engage my heart anyday. =)

-- cin (cin@=0.)), November 30, 2000.


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