Anthropologist Helen Fisher studies the distinctions between men and women's brains when they fall in love.

Imaging studies published in Nature indicate that in women, neurons on both sides of the brain are activated when they are listening, while in men, neurons on only one side of the brain are activated. When negotiating a virtual reality maze, men use both the left and right hippocampus for the task. To accomplish the same task, women use the right hippocampus and the right prefrontal cortex.

These studies suggest that while men and women are in the same situation their experiences might be different. Rutgers University's Helen Fisher conducts research on what men's and women's brains look like when they fall in love. For men, the most active regions of the brain are related to visual stimuli and penile erection. Whereas with women, several regions affiliated with emotions and memory recall become active.

Is there biological impetus for these distinctive ways of processing the same event? According to Deborah Blum, author of the book, Sex on the Brain: The Biological Differences Between Men & Women, behavioral gender differences can be traced back to the different demands of being a sperm producer versus being an egg maker. Fisher's theory is that in order to determine who will be a good mate, females must remember details of personality and behavior to determine what kind of provider their partners will be. The romantic love experienced by women is intended to start a mating process and ensure the female is not abandoned in the early years of raising children.

	Hormones, such as Testosterone, may contribute to differntiation between men's and women's brains.

Scientists are searching for the mechanisms that would make men's and women's brains function differently. It has been suggested that testosterone, which runs high in men and tends to spike in times of challenge, propels a quick aggressive response. In women, on the other hand, Oxytocin provides for lactation and it has been associated with bonding and nurturing behavior. These hormones act upon the brain in distinctive ways and suggest why men and women develop different parts of their brains, at different rates and at different times. This field of research is complicated because the brain is plastic and easily influenced by environment and circumstance. So, it is difficult to determine whether the results we see in this imaging research are the consequence of social conditioning or are the manifestation of a hard-wired, biological imperative.

Just as the imaging studies show that men and women experience and store emotional events differently and respond distinctively to various verbal and spatial challenges, we also may respond to illness in dissimilar ways. Research shows that men and women require different dosages and kinds of drugs to treat schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and depression. As Larry Cahill points out, "What's the difference then between your mother having clinical depression and your father having clinical depression? Wouldn't you want to know? The goal is to optimally treat both of them, so wouldn't you want to know if the treatment that works great on your dad might actually harm your mom?" Cahill's research is helping science move past the idea that one-brain-fits-all.
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