The Female Brain Paperback – Big Book, August 7, 2007

As a female interested in biological forces, this book offered tremendous insight into why I act and think the way I do. The Female Brain explains the female brain in an informative but witty way. In this review, I intend to educate readers on the details of the book to try to encourage everyone to read it. I believe this book will better prepare females for certain events in their lives, and possibly make life a little easier consequently. Dr. Brizendine writes in a humorous and fun fashion that keeps you entertained while learning. She also writes in a language in which the average reader can understand, even without any knowledge of the brain or biology in general.Style/StructureThe book is broken into seven chapters representing different stages of female development as well as chapters on sex, love and trust, and emotion. The book starts with an introduction describing the history of the study of female brains and Dr. Brizandine's interest in it. The book emphasizes the large role hormones have on the female brain in regulation of emotions and how a female acts. She even includes a chart of the various hormonal changes in each stage of female life and the consequences these hormones have on the female. Each chapter is subsequently broken into different subsections, stressing important points of each topic. She uses stories of various patients of hers to elucidate women's actions and feelings during specific stages of life throughout the book. The book concludes with research on hormone therapy and the author's stance and experience with it.SynopsisIn the first chapter titled "The Birth of the Female Brain", the author states that the brain of a fetus is the same in each gender until the eighth week of development in which if the fetus is a male, "a huge testosterone surge" kills cells in communication centers of the brain and increases cell growth in the aggression centers. According to the author, this causes one of the primary differences between male and female brains, leading to girls showing more empathy and cooperation with peers. Girls can even "hear a broader range of emotional tones in the human voice than can boys.""Teen Girl Brain" relates initiation of the cycling of the hormones estrogen and progesterone to the actions of females during these tough years. She explains how the levels of hormones at various stages of the cycle lead from stress at one point to irritability at another. Also, the author explains how the hormones increase memory, the desire to talk, and sexual urges at various point during the cycle. The brain becomes sharper due to "a twenty five percent growth of connections in the hippocampus during weeks one and two [of the menstrual cycle]."The chapter on love and trust focuses on subjects such as chemical attraction, the intricacies of the brain "in love", and evolutionary forces of mating and women's trust in men. The author emphasizes the effects that dopamine and oxytocin have on the brain, including affecting judgment and trust. The affect of hormones are so strong that " the brain circuits that are activated when we are in love match those of the drug addict."The author also elaborates on different aspects of sex, delving into both research and evolutionary reasons of the female orgasm. This chapter also explores reasons behind female infidelity, suggesting that heightened detection of male pheromones right before ovulation may be a cause.The chapter titled "The Mommy Brain" highlights the role of hormones on the female brain both during pregnancy and after the birth of the baby. Topics such as the pleasure of breast feeding, returning to work, and even the "daddy brain" are addressed. She mainly emphasizes the intimate connection between mother and child. For example, the mother can detect the smell of her baby with about ninety percent accuracy.The chapter on emotion focuses on women's heightened emotional sense and how it affects various aspects. Women unconsciously participate in an act called "mirroring" in which involves imitating the facial expression of someone else in order to assess the other's emotions. She addresses the female's better emotional memory as well as her tendency to avoid conflict. Additionally, possible causes behind female's greater anxiety and depression than men are described.Finally, "The Mature Female Brain" is all about the struggles women go through during their menopausal years. The author stresses the shock a female's body goes through during the withdrawal of hormones that have been affecting her body her entire life. This leads to increased ambition towards working and decreased responsibility in caring for the family. The author suggests hormone therapy as a way to reverse declining function of the brain such as the loss of memory.CritiqueI really enjoyed the author's use of stories of her patients because it kept the book more entertaining while providing situations that linked in well with the topic that she was covering. At first, I was worried that the book would be all facts and statistics but I was pleasantly surprised at how the author incorporated those stories as well as various other theories in biological science. For example, she links certain female tendencies to evolutionary forces such as the "fight or flight" response.The book surprisingly contained a fair amount of information on the male as well. Most of these references were comparing the two sexes. At some points, I felt a bit of a feminist vibe in the way she talks about men, as most of her references imply ways in which females are better than males. However, I do not think the way in which she does this would offend the average male reader.As a female, I found the chapter on love and trust to be particularly enthralling. I found the role of oxytocin and dopamine particularly interesting on the foundations of trust and happiness in relationships. One fact that I find very interesting is that hugging and cuddling cause a release of oxytocin in the brain which leads to the female trusting the man. The book provided me with greater insight into why I feel so in love with my boyfriend, no matter how crazy he drives me sometimes! As a biology major, I also enjoyed the connections the author made using ecology and evolution.In relation to neuroscience, the book taught me more about the various regions of the brain and their various roles. However, the book most extensively covers the role of hormones on the brain. At first, I thought the author was using too much of a hormonal basis for female actions and emotions, but after reading more of the book I was happy to discover her incorporation of other elements such as ecology, genetics, and evolution. I believe she does a wonderful job in tying all of the information together in a logical way without any awkward transitions.RecommendationI encourage everyone to read this book as it has definitely become one of my favorites. Dr. Brizendine does a fantastic job at keeping the audience captivated so that you never want to put the book down. The book gave me significant insight into the large hormonal forces that guide female behavior. I think the book is a great read for both males and females so that each sex can have a greater understanding of the female and the biological forces that drive her.

This is an excellent book with many insights about both the female and male brain. The writing makes for easy reading that is equally enjoyable for either women or men. The author approaches this subject at the hormonal and brain function level. She shares how a few hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, oxytocin), neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin) and their regulators within the brain (prefrontal cortex, hypothalamus, amygdale) dictate our social behavior. Hormonal levels and their regulators are radically different between men and women. Thus, the genders behave differently. These hormones have a life cycle of their own defining specific passages in a women's life including, puberty, and the various menopause stages (peri-, -, and post-).The female brain is different on several counts. It has larger resources dedicated to communication, language, emotions, and memory related to such emotions. This is manifested by a larger hippocampus and 11% more neurons dedicated to language capabilities. On the other hand, women's brain resources dedicated to sex is barely more than a third as large as men's. Testosterone level is a key differentiator between male and female as it is so much lower in women. As a result, women are more cooperative, less competitive, less aggressive, more concerned with emotion of others, and more focused on the group than the self alone. Men are 20 times more aggressive. The population of the prison system reflects that. Men think about sex far more often and their sex drive is far higher. That's why men rape women and not the reverse.The chapter on the teen girl brain is excellent. It explains a great deal about the emotional roller coaster associated with a surge in hormonal levels. The differentiation between the female and male brain at that age is in full swing. Girls speak faster and two to three times as much as boys. Girls need social connection and ongoing communication opportunities. When those are lacking, a girl after puberty is twice as vulnerable as a boy to depression. On the other hand, because of lesser developed communication skills boys are a lot more at risk for autism.The chapter on motherhood is also fascinating. It describes how a woman's brain is altered forever after motherhood to enhance the survival of her children. The author analyses the related metamorphosis of the women's brain in technical detail at the hormonal level. In plain English, whatever nature wants you to do (reproduce and mother) it does by generating plenty of natural feel good drugs (dopamine and oxytocin).The author addresses at length love and sex. Her findings based on neuroscience confirm some the clichés we have that women look for economic stability and loyalty in men. While men look for, well the obvious: Scarlett Johansson. Women's focus is nesting. Men's is fertility. However, Brizendine indicates things get more complex. Women do want long-term relationship with loyal and caring providers. However, they occasionally don't mind reproducing with a philanderer that appears to have superior genes. Brizendine states that 10% of children are fathered by such philanderers without the husband knowledge. Superior genes are characteristics of males who have greater symmetry in their body and face. In plain English, this means men who are more handsome. Apparently, this has been confirmed by countless studies. Yet, this statement is perplexing. Is Brad Pitt really more symmetric than Danni de Vito? From a geometric standpoint, this could be a close call. So, what does symmetry really has to do with handsomeness? Also, interestingly enough the loyalty of a male seems incredibly predetermined by the length of a certain gene (vasopressin) the longer the more loyal.The chapter on menopause and the mature women is also interesting. The changing hormonal balance, including the drop off in estrogen, triggers a marked reduction in nurturing behavior. Nurturing children and husband becomes really tasking. The frustration with this situation engenders a need for self-actualization. This is especially pronounced if the kids are out to college and the husband is retired and expects three meals a day. The terms of the marriage need to be renegotiated if the marriage is to survive. Counter to the public's perception it is women who initiate divorce 65% of the time among couples over 50.Early in the book Brizendine addresses Lawrence Summers remark that women are underrepresented in mathematics and scientific fields because when comparing men vs women, even though their average ability may be the same, women's variability (or standard deviation) was lower. Thus, few women reached the top echelons of those fields. Brizendine rebuts Summers by indicating that girls and boys' ability and variability are the same through their teen years. Brizendine states that fewer women reach the top echelon in the mentioned fields because their brain wiring makes them more social and they do not seek lonesome (scientific) pursuits. However, a review of the 2006 College Board SAT results contradicts Brizendine as it shows that boys have both a higher average and higher standard deviation on math score vs girls. As a result, twice as many boys than girls score greater than 750 on the SAT math section. Thus, in this one case Brizendine's arguments are not convincing. This does not detract from the overall excellent intellectual quality of this book.

THE BEST BOOK I'VE EVER READ

For everyone Who wants to improve the relationship with themselves and partners. Easy to read but very insightful. I will be coming back to it

This book helped me understand women more. It put a lot into perspective for me. I'm a fifty year old man. I couldn't have imagined all the trauma and confusion that goes on in a woman's brain. Great book.