Mary Clare Connor
Core Bio IH
September 10, 2012
Article Review
Glynn, Sarah. “Our Brains Make Men And Women See
Things Differently.” Medical News Today. 04
Sep 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/249844.php>.
In the article, “Our Brains Make
Men and Women See Things Differently” Sarah Glynn writes of a new study that
proves men and women have much different ways of viewing things. The study,
published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Biology of Sex Differences, verifies
that there are differences with how the two different sexes view the world. Scientists
believe that while women are better at differentiating colors, men are more
sensitive to details and rapidly moving stimuli.
The
reasons for these differences are the dissimilarities in male and females’
brains. There is
a large amount of the male hormone receptors throughout the cerebral cortex in
the brain and especially in the visual cortex, which controls how the brain
processes different images. Males actually have 25% more neurons in the
visual cortex than females because during embryogenesis the male hormones are
responsible for controlling the development of those specific neurons.
These ideas on the separate genders’
brains were put to the test in an experiment by a group of researchers from
Brooklyn and Hunter Colleges of City University of New York. The scientists
observed people over the age of 16 from both high school and college. Both
genders had to have regular color vision and perfect sight to partake in the
study. The scientists absorbed that the color vision of men was slightly weaker
than women’s. Also, that the male subjects needed a longer wavelength to see
the same hue as the female subjects. This means that it is definitely harder
for men to differentiate between colors than it is for women, which means that
men have a wider range of colors in the center of the spectrum.
The scientists also measured the
contrast-sensitivity functions of vision, they did this by using a picture of
dark and light bars, either vertical or horizontal, and asking the subjects to
choose which one they saw. The image was made to seem as if it were flickering when the light and dark bars
were changed in each image. The researchers found that at reasonable rates of
image changing the subjects lost their sensitivity for the bars that were put
close together and gained sensitivity for the bars that were farther apart.
They did this by varying how quickly the bars staggered or how close together
they were to one another. Both men and women
struggled resolving the images of any width when the changing was fast. Yet,
the male volunteers had a much easier time than the women when resolving the fast
changing images that were close together.
This article was written very
well because it gave all of the facts about the differences in the brains of
men and women and also the outcome of the study performed by a team of
researchers. The elements and evidence used to prove what was stated was
presented very nicely. The topic of this article was interesting to me because
the brain and how it impacts our vision has always been fascinating to me,
considering I’m practically blind. Also,
the fact that gender impacts how we view things, such as color and detail is
riveting. The author of this article used many sources and gave great
background on the material and overall wrote a good, stimulating piece.
Mary Clare wrote an astounding essay that interested me in how the human brain actually and how it varies from male to female. Some thoughts that caught my attention were how this was published In Biomed and how the article introduces society to the ways a human mind is different. The second fact I found interesting was when Mary explained one of the first experiments done to test the brain. This experiment tested to see if women to defy colors better than males and women conquered that. The last d=fact that fascinated me the way both sexes struggled but the way she explained the second experiment and how men reacted better to fast moving images better than women did was very well done and kept my attention. Two suggestions I would say could spice up this summery was how Mary could have included a little more detail into each experiment. The second critique is she could have also explained how this experiment would impact society and how it would change the way people thought. To end on a brighter note Mary wrote this article very well and I love how she introduced me to such a fascinating article that explains how the different sex has an impact on what it process daily.
ReplyDeleteMary wrote a good review of reading the article of difference of men and women’s brains. Mary did a good job of having the first paragraph conclude all important differences of men and women. That gives me an overview of the whole article, so I have an idea what the article basically talk about before I read it word-by-word. The whole review also pays lots of attention on the important of tests and experiments. She tells us how the experiments were set rather than just states “the scientists say…the scientists prove that…” Mary also wrote a lot of details of each experiment, and she explains how the results of experiments make us one more steps near to the nature of human beings.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be better if the summarize of the original article could be more terse and organized. Also, the introductions of the experiment and scientist’s thoughts that took directly from the article are better be quote or describe in her own words. And if Mary can find some interesting things happen around her that related to the different brains of men and women, which will be great and more attractive of reading the review.
I was really surprised when I read the article. Because I have thought what make men and women different is the environment they live in, and the different altitude that people have toward them. Never thought there are really some differences in our brains that might lead men and women’s life so dissimilar since the time we born. And at the end of the review, Mary did a great job on telling the reason why this article is interesting to her and all of us.
Mary wrote a great summary of her article. I really understood the experiments and connected it to the hypothesis and conclusions that men and women are different in seeing. She makes it clear that the testing is what makes this information possible.
ReplyDeleteAt some points the information jumps around in different points of the review. It could have been a little more thought out with organizing your ideas into the paragraphs. Also she could have told us a little more about all of the experiments and how the scientists get there information from it.
Finally i really liked this article. I thought it was extremely interesting and I could almost feel as if i was reading an actual article itself since it was very descriptive. Also love the topic about how the brain effects the different gender. Nice job!!
Nice job Mary Clare I think you did a great job reviewing the article. I found that you seemed to really know what you were talking about. You presented the information clean and concisely, and I was interested the whole time. I also think the paper had a real voice, especially at the end you gave a good description of why you liked it and your fascination with the article. I also liked the format of the review, you started with the main idea of the article, then you went into the description and then you said how they got the idea, and then you finished off with your reflection.
ReplyDeleteI think next time if you write an article that gets into the brain or something complicated there should be more vocabulary defined in there. When I was reading I wasn’t exactly sure was a cortex or a neuron does, and how it contributed to the article. Maybe just a little description after you mention the word would be a little helpful. Also when you described the experiments at the college I was a little confused at how the experiments worked, there were passages when you mention the light bars and such it was hard to follow.
In conclusion I thought it was a very interesting article, and a good response to it. I always knew that women were better at seeing colors than men but I never knew why, also I didn’t know that for similar reasons men are better at detecting fast moving stimuli. Great job!
I read Mary Claire Connor’s article on how our brains make men and women see colors differently. Mary did a fantastic job giving strong examples from the article. For instance, the fact that men need a longer wavelength of color to differentiate color, ultimately meaning that men have a wider ranges of color in the center spectrum. Also, I liked how Mary included very specific words of how men and women differ with regard to vision the article and was able to explain well what the tests that these kids went through were like.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Mary’s review could have been improved if she incorporated a little more about what the effect of how the brain visually processes information in dealing with these small differences, and how that could affect them in the world. I also think Mary could have improved the article by including more ideas about the research that doctors have done.
One aspect that impressed me in this article was the fact that these tests prove true for every male and female and that it is something that affects the whole world. This was surprising to me because I didn’t realize that one study could be an experiment on the whole world, even though it was only tested in a small area. Overall, I think Mary did a fantastic job on this review and it really opened my eyes to see how the rest of the world could have the same aspects of mind as me even though that aspect is not physical but mental.
Ralph Chrappa Blog Comment
ReplyDeleteMary Clare wrote an interesting review to the article “Our Brains Make Men and Women See Things Differently. One interesting thing I learned was that men take longer to differentiate colors than women do. A second thing, is even though women see colors better, men see moving things differently. Lastly, that the reason men see differently is that there is a large amount of a hormone throughout the brain that impacts the visual cortex, which processes images. Although Mary Clare’s article was good, there are a few things she could do to improve it to make it as good as it could be. First, she could have added a quote or two from scientists on their own opinion to this study. Also, she could have added a little more about the thing in our brain that makes men and women see things differently. Lastly, I am still amazed that women and men see things differently, because I never would of thought of that before I read this review.