The hippocampus, a crucial part of the brain is larger in females, when compared to the hippocampus in males. However, now, a new study has found that there isn't any difference in hippocampal size between men and women.
According to a new research conducted by researchers at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, there is no significant difference in hippocampal size between men and women.
There are two hippocampi in the human brain, located on both sides of the brain beneath the cerebral cortex. A previous common theory claimed that a disproportionately large hippocampus was the reason behind females' tendency toward emotional expressiveness, stronger interpersonal skills and better verbal memory.
Lise Eliot, associate professor of neuroscience at the university's medical school, led the team of students in a meta-analysis of structural MRI scans. Statistical technique 'meta-analysis' is the combination of findings from many independent studies into a comprehensive review.
The team analyzed findings from 76 published papers, which involved more than 6,000 healthy individuals.
"Sex differences in the brain are irresistible to those looking to explain stereotypic differences between men and women," said Dr. Lise Eliot.
"They often make a big splash, in spite of being based on small samples. But as we explore multiple data sets and are able to coalesce very large samples of males and females, we find these differences often disappear or are trivial."
According to Eliot, previous analyses had disproved similar purported sex differences in the brain. They concluded that there's no difference in the size of corpus callosum that allows the two sides of the brain to communicate, nor do men and women have significant differences in the way their left and right hemispheres understand and process language.
"Many people believe there is such a thing as a 'male brain' and a 'female brain'," said Eliot.
"But when you look beyond the popularized studies -- at collections of all the data -- you often find that the differences are minimal."
The findings appeared in the journal NeuroImage.
