While that might make men less susceptible to debilitating mental illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease and dementia as they grow older, it doesn't make them any smarter than women.
Women have more advantages with complex languages.
She said having more neurons may help men solve problems or sense directions. Dr. de Courten-Myers described the nerve cells in the cortex as a tree, and the synapses that carry information between cells as branches. The male is more like a spruce tree, with lots of branches. But women may have the advantage early in life, she said, adding that more men are born mentally retarded and with learning disabilities. Dr. de Courten-Myers said her work was mostly reviewing computer data, and credited Dr. Ted Rabinowicz, chief of neuropathology at Lau sanne University, with isolating and analyzing samples.