Most men showed exclusive activity on the left side of the brain's temporal lobe, which is known to be involved in processing language, while women showed activity in the left and right temporal lobes. Researchers, who presented their findings Tuesday at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting in Chicago, are not quite sure what that means. But it could. Because they use more of their brain to listen, women may be hard-wired to pay more attention and to listen more carefully, Lurito says. Another possibility is that it's harder for women to listen so they have to use more of their brain to accomplish it than men.
Previous studies have shown the more difficult the task, the more of the brain is activated.
A third possibility is that women listen for different things when they hear a story. The difference in brain activity might be their response to the emotional content of the words, Lurito says. Magnetic resonance imaging measures changes in blood flow to cells in certain areas of the brain. A growing body of evidence shows there are subtle differences in the brains of men and women, says Dr. Micheal Phillips, co-author of the study and an assistant professor of radiology at Indiana University School of Medicine. Still, it's important to remember that gender differences say little or nothing about an individual's characteristics, Lurito says.