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The human brain may be one of the most mysterious objects in the universe, but there’s one thing we all know for certain: men’s and women’s brains are wired in completely different ways that make the two sexes so very unlike one another.

it’s the scientific truth that sparked the saying ‘men are from Mars, women are from Venus’, after all.

But a new study has called this into question, with research suggesting it is wrong to say men have one type of grey matter and women another.

An analysis of the brain scans of 1,400 men and women claims to show that entirely ‘ male’ or ‘female’ brains are extremely rare, with most being ‘inter-sex’ — or somewhere in between.

Back in the real world, this simply can’t be true. for centuries, the battle of the sexes has been waged over the biological differences between our brains — be these in our approach to mapreading, relationships or household chores.

some men may be magnificent multi-taskers and brilliant at remembering birthdays; while there are no doubt women who are immaculate parallel parkers and obsessive stamp collectors. But they are very much in the minority — and that’s all down to what goes on in our heads.

Decades of research have gone into studying male and female brains — and scientists have found us to be two different species.

BRAINS DEVELOP A GENDER IN THE WOMB

it’s Not possible to put all our differences down to the ways in which boys and girls are raised — because the gender of your brain starts developing before birth.

A recent study of foetuses at 16 weeks measured testosterone levels in the amniotic sac, the liquidfilled membrane that surrounds the womb.

Mothers naturally produce testosterone during pregnancy, although scientists don’t yet know why some make more than others. Researchers found that male-brained foetuses were exposed to up to ten times more testosterone than female-brained foetuses.

‘the higher the child’s pre-natal testosterone, the slower they were to develop socially,’ explains professor simon Baron-Cohen, an expert in developmental psychology at the University of Cambridge. ‘they showed, for example, less eye contact at their first birthday.’

they also had a smaller vocabulary as toddlers and showed less understanding of others’ thoughts and feelings — typically characteristics of a male brain.

Another study of pregnant women, done using an ultrasound scanner at 26 weeks, found a disparity inside brains of boys and girls. the corpus callosum — a bridge of nerve tissue that connects the left and right sides of the brain — was significantly thicker in female foetuses than males.

this meant their brains developed in different ways and took on traditional male and female characteristics as the babies grew up.

MAPS REALLY ARE FOR CHAPS

Most families will know only too well the proverbial battle over the steering wheel, with women seen as being bad drivers, poor map- readers and notoriously terrible at parking.

But this isn’t just a stereotype— scientists have found our behaviour in the car is linked to activity in our brains. scans of male brains show heightened activity in four areas associated with decision- making, spatial awareness, focusing on a task and visualising.

this makes them broadly better at co- ordinating hand- eye movement, turning corners and sticking to a certain speed when driving.

the parietal lobe, one of four segments of the brain that make up the cerebellum, or control centre, is particularly active in men.

this is the part responsible for integrating information from all the senses, which in turn improves their parking skills — as they can process the changing speed and position of the car more quickly than women.

the male brain also tends to process information in an abstract way, making them good at reading maps and following generic directions.

MEN HAVE TIDY MINDS

Ask a man to find a set of keys in the house and chances are he’ll have them neatly stashed in a logical, designated place. Ask a woman, however, and you’re more likely to find her rifling through drawers and inside cupboards, insisting she ‘ knows’ where they are.

this is because male and female brains work very differently when it comes to organisation.

‘Broadly speaking, men tend to like categorising things and putting them into boxes. they are very systematic.

‘Meanwhile, women are more in tune with the empathy side of things,’ explains Dr Michael Mosley, who has done in-depth studies of neuroscience and gender.

‘this means women are not as good at tidying — though that will often come as a surprise.’

the male brain likes order, while the female brain is broadly more creative, solving problems through intuition and common sense rather than logic.

WOMEN’S AMAZING JUGGLING ACT

No, it’s not a myth — women really are better at multi-tasking, as anyone who’s tried to carry on a conversation with their other half while he watches tV will know.

Last year, a study by Uk psychologists found that this is all down to different wiring in our brains.

they used magnetic- resonance imaging ( radiowave scans that produce detailed pictures of the body) to study the brains of 1,000 volunteers while asking them to juggle between different tasks involving counting and shape recognition.

While both sexes struggled, men performed far worse than women. this, found the scientists, is because women generally have more connections between the left and right hemispheres of their brain.

‘the fact that you can connect different regions of the brain means you ought to be good at multi-tasking,’ explains Dr Ragini Verman, an expert in biomedical computing.

FLAIR FOR LANGUAGES

it’s ofteN said that women have a better knack for picking up foreign tongues than men, and this is backed up by science.

studies of adult brains show that women tend to use both sides, or hemispheres, of their brain equally, while men are more likely to use their left. this means that, as its owner ages, language skills become embedded in both sides of the female brain — while the male brain uses just one side.

‘Broadly speaking, there is evidence from scans of blood flow in men’s brains that men tend to activate one side of the brain more than the other,’ says Dr Mosley.

When a language is being taught, girls’ brains show activity in the area associated with encoding and memory, whereas in boys it’s the visual and aural areas that light up. this means they need additional prompts — such as seeing words or listening to them — to learn.

WHY HE NEVER LISTENS PROPERLY

the same is true for men when it comes to listening skills — which will come as some relief to those chaps who have been accused of having ‘selective hearing’.

A recent study by American neuroscientists asked men and women to listen to a novel being read aloud, while scientists used imaging technology to analyse the blood flow within their grey matter.

When men listened, only the left hemisphere of their brains was activated, while women showed activity on both sides. ‘if there’s more of an area dedicated to a set of skills, it follows that the skills will be more refined,’ explains Dr David Geary of the University of Missouri.

MEN DO HAVE SEX ON THE BRAIN

MeN typically have a higher sex drive than women, and part of this can be traced to our grey matter.

the amygdala is an almond-shaped set of neurons located deep inside the lower front half of the brain, in what is called the medial temporal lobe. in humans, it’s linked to both fear and pleasure — and it has an important part to play in our sex drive.

the male brain contains a larger amygdala than the female brain, which may be behind their boosted sex drive.

WHY GIRLS NEVER FORGET BIRTHDAYS

Despite being 8 per cent smaller than men’s brains, on average, women’s brains have been shown to be more efficient — and this makes them better at ‘big picture’ tasks such as keeping a diary and remembering friends’ and relatives’ birthdays.

Not only that, but they’re far more likely to remember a piece of information if it has emotional relevance.

this is because women retain emotional memories more vividly than men, using their amygdala differently to store the information. they even store it on a different side of this part of the brain (the left), where such memories are more easily retrieved — while men relegate this sort of information to the right hand side.

there are downsides, however, with women more prone to depression, anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder because they tend to dwell on all memories, including negative ones.

HOT-WIRED TO HEAR A BABY CRY

oNe area in which men and women are poles apart is emotional intelligence, particularly when it comes to children.

in 2013, italian scientists who scanned the brains of men and women listening to the sound of a crying baby found that activity in the women’s brains immediately reduced in two areas called the dorsal medial prefrontal and the posterior cingulate.

these are the areas associated with daydreaming and planning — meaning women’s brain function shifted from the future to the ‘now’, in response to

the sounds of an infant in distress. The men, perhaps unsurprisingly, carried on daydreaming.

THE PAIN THRESHOLD

A sTAndArd pain test — putting your hands in a bucket of ice-cold water and seeing how long you can withstand it — can be used to tell the difference between male and female brains. After the shock, the water doesn’t actually feel cold — below 3c, pain receptors overwhelm temperature receptors in your hands and you’re no longer able to tell if the water is hot or cold.

But you will feel pain — and the male brain tends to withstand this better. ‘The differences between the two sexes is greatest in response to pain,’ says dr Mosley. ‘Our brains process pain differently because they’re made up in different ways. When this test is done in a laboratory, men almost always outlast women.’

THE SCIENCE OF SPORT

IT MAy sound like an old-fashioned stereotype, but there is some evidence to show the male brain is hardwired to enjoy watching — and playing — sport.

Experts say the difference is most likely down to higher levels of testosterone in men, which surges during sports matches.

The hypothalamus — the part of the brain that controls the body’s internal functions — is more sensitive to this hormone in men, causing it to react more strongly. Men may also experience a surge of dopamine, the chemical that controls the reward and pleasure centres in the brain, while watching their favourite sport.

This can, of course, happen in women — but initially higher testosterone levels make it more common in the male brain.