Men Use Only One Side Of Brain When Listening
 
Newly released research suggests that men listen using just half their brains.
 
In a study of 20 men and 20 women, brain scans showed that men, when listening, mostly used the left sides of their brains, the region associated with understanding language. Women, in the study, however, used both sides of their brain.
 
Other studies have suggested that women "can handle listening to two conversations at once," said the study's co-author, Dr. Joseph T. Lurito, an assistant radiology professor at Indiana University School of Medicine. "One of the reasons may be that they have more brain devoted to it."
 
Dr. Lurito's findings, which were presented at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting, do not necessarily mean that women are better listeners.
 
It could be that "it's harder for them," Dr. Lurito said, suggesting that they might have to use more of their brains than men to do the same task.
 
He said he wanted to point out that men and women might process language differently.
 
In the study, functional magnetic resonance imaging--or fMRI--was used to measure brain activity by producing multidimensional images of blood flow to various parts of the brain.
 
Inside an MRI scanner, study participants wore headphones and listened to taped excerpts from John Grisham's novel, The Partner, while researchers watched blood-flow images of their brains displayed on a nearby video screen.
 
Listening resulted in increased blood flow in the left temporal lobes of the men's brains. In women, both temporal lobes showed activity.
 
Researchers say the findings, however, don't address the question of whether women are better listeners than men.
 
"As scientists, we're figuring out what normal is, and more and more often it seems we're finding that normal for men may be different than normal for women," said Dr. Michael Phillips, assistant professor of radiology at Indiana University School of Medicine and one of the co-authors of the study. "That doesn't mean one is better or more capable than the other."
 
Though preliminary, the study could help doctors treating stroke victims better understand how men's and women's brains differ, said Dr. Edgar Kenton of the American Stroke Association, a neurologist at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
 
It suggests that in a stroke affecting the brain's left side, women might recover language ability more quickly than men, though that remains to be proven.