Why I Keep Forgetting to Post This Review

Review of "Why Men Never Remember and Women Never Forget" by Marianne J. Legato

Marianne Legato, an expert on gender specific medicine, writes how men and women’s biological differences account for some psychological differences. Men and women tend to use different portions of their brains more and to release more of different hormones which tends to create differences in how men and women act in various activities. It is important that we understand and appreciate these differences, especially in medical senses as past research has tended to not realize that women have these different reactions.

Women are more apt to activate the armygdala section of the brain during stress which causes higher blood pressure and faster heart beats, thus making women more prone to stress. Women also tend to release greater amounts of the hormone oxytocin which motivates one to seek others for assistance. During stress, women are more apt to use both sides of the brain, which allows for more multitasking. Men tend to use one side of the brain and are better at handing events one at a time, which in some circumstances can be more efficient than multitasking. Women, thought, release more estrogen and activate more brain neurons during stress, which indicate they may feel stress more sharply. The structure of chromosomes of females makes them more apt to suffer from depression. These differences in chemical releases may partially explain why, of the 19 million with depression, 12 million are female. The chemical releases that tend to cause depression often occur after childbirth which leads to the little admitted reality that most mothers suffer some degree of depression within 10 days following giving birth.

As for bragging rights, men can claim to have larger brains and women may retort their brains are more efficient. Interestingly, male and female brains literally think differently. Females tend to be better at understanding the nuances of verbal communication and understanding the meaning of nonverbal cues such as facial expressions. Women tend to have a higher blood flow to the parts of the brain from which language functions. Thus, women have better recall of conversations.

It is important that we understand and recognize these differences. As many past medical studies used more male subjects, we are now learning it is wrong to assume that the responses of women to diseases and psychological experiences are the same as men experience. It is better that we discover what these differences are and we alter our medical and psychological assistance accordingly.