Behind the Scenes of The Brain Show

by Zeev Nitsan

  It seems that our gender does not necessarily determine the tendencies of our brain. The insights related to “gender-dependent brain” derive from averaging. It is certainly possible for women to own a brain that has a high tendency toward competitiveness, or for men to have a high tendency toward empathizing.

  Brain Seasons in Pink and Blue

  As aforementioned, among both men and women the hands of time in the clock of brain seasons indicate daily and monthly fluctuations, and fluctuations that are compatible with the various periods in life. This can be roughly compared to the hands of seconds, minutes, and hours.

  The Gender Trip—Blue Trip and Pink Trip

  Feminine brains and masculine brains tend to dip into different pools of neurotransmitters and thus experience different types of “trips.”

  To a certain extent, the owners of a masculine brain are forced to be subjected to the mischief of the androgenic hormones (testosterone and its derivatives), and owners of feminine brains usually find shelter in the shade of estrogens. This fact results in two brains that share numerous similarities but also significant differences.

  The cocktail of hormones, which changes over the course of our life, greatly affects our desires and the way we perceive reality.

  Among women, during the years of fertility, the brain changes a little every month due to the influence of hormones. The monthly period is also a brain cycle and not only a cycle of the endometrium.

  Although the hormones do not lead to a certain behavioral pattern, in a deterministic manner, their level induces a convenient climate for the sprouting of certain behavioral (and thinking) patterns, and they induce a higher tendency or “general probability” of adopting such thinking or behavioral patterns.

  The weather during the feminine seasons of the brain is greatly affected by the monthly period.

  Thus, for instance, the premenstrual syndrome, which affects many women prior to the monthly period, might pour into the drink of reality perception a few drops of gloom that do not derive directly from external reality itself but, rather, from an emotional tendency induced by the hormonal cocktail prior to the monthly period.

  Wave-Surfing as a Way of Life

  The brain of a woman during the years of fertility sometimes seems as if carried by waves of progesterone–estrogen, whose changing levels lead to emotional fluctuations.

  During the first two weeks of the female monthly period, estrogen is the prominent hormone, and one of its impacts is increasing the volume of the hippocampus in about 25 percent of women on average. It seems that the increased volume leads to improvement in memory performance. During the second part of the period, the main hormone is progesterone, and it seems its impact slows down, a little, the main thinking functions, as was reflected in studies that examined measurements of attention and concentration. The progesterone suppresses the influence of testosterone and decreases sexual desire.

  During the last day of the period, while the level of progesterone is decreased, the brain becomes more sensitive to stimulations, and sometimes there are fluctuations with respect to its emotional conduct.

  Premenstrual syndrome might lead to extreme emotional reactions, due to the impact of the balance of powers in the brain, induced by hormonal changes.

  The estrogen improves memory capabilities. Its beneficial effects in this respect were observed in women whose monthly periods stopped and who took estrogen as an alternative hormonal treatment, although such treatment also involves some medical risks that require cautious consideration.

  The monthly period induces a transition, similar to “musical chairs” in the brain parliament, which regulates thought and emotions, in the shape of changes in the activity mix at various brain areas.

  In a simplistic, generalizing note, we might say that the amygdala has more seats at the brain parliament during the days that precede the monthly period, whereas the prefrontal lobe has more seats at the parliament mostly during the first two weeks of the period.

  Advanced Maturation in Pink and Blue

  The average age of cessation of the monthly period is fifty—at this age, along with the decrease in the level of estrogen, the level of oxytocin drops as well, and a biochemical profile that might lead to a tendency toward decreased interest in the more subtle shades of emotion is formed.

  A few years prior to the cessation of the monthly period, at about the age of forty-three, the female brain becomes less sensitive to estrogen, and some see it as a sign of the beginning of perimenopause. The level of estrogen decreases, along with the level of testosterone, and interest in sex reduces.

  The period that precedes premenopause is sometimes a period that, in certain senses, constitutes a mirror image of the hormone-dependent emotional chaos of adolescence—“just without the fun,” as was defined by a woman of this age.

  The male brain and the female brain age according to a different pattern; the male brain loses cells of the cortex sooner than the female brain does.

  The stream of testosterone, which flows more intensively in the blood of alpha males of the primate society, grants them their excessive capabilities on the scale of apes’ machoism. The implications for their human cousins are clear.

  Although the level of testosterone decreases as men age, their brain does not experience a sharp drop of the levels of hormones, as a woman’s brain does.

  As men age and the level of testosterone decreases, the volume of activity in the amygdala decreases as well, and the vector of influence of the prefrontal lobe increases in the parallelogram of forces versus the amygdala. This increase moderates the tendency to feel anger. An aging man is less prone, on average, to behavior that is urge-motivated, and the influence of the vectors of moderation and restraining, in the behavioral parallelogram of forces, become more prominent in correlation with a decreased amplitude of the wave of testosterone in men’s brains.

  Anima and Animus

  According to psychologist Carl Jung, Freud’s student, behavioral characteristics that are stereotypically considered masculine and were merged into the cocktail of feminine behavior are called animus. Alternately, the behavioral components that are stereotypically considered feminine and were merged into the cocktail of masculine behavior are called anima. According to Jung, in midlife behavioral changes take place that expand the behavioral repertoire of gender-dependent behaviors, so that both men and women incorporate the anima and the animus, respectively, in their behavior, and are less prone to stereotypical, gender-dependent behavior. It seems that, as we grow older, our brain turns more purplish, as the “pink” female brain gets some of the “blue” shade that characterizes the male brain, and vice versa. We complement ourselves from within ourselves.

  The Illuminated and Shadowed Areas of the Soul

  According to a common view, as adults we accept with more understanding the “shadowed areas” of our personality (elements we considered unworthy in the past) as part of us; they are embedded in our consciousness and experienced as components of our personality, even if we still refer to them as “human weaknesses” and nothing to be proud of.

  The hippocampus in women’s brains is relatively larger than the one in men’s brains, and some relate it to the better ability of women to retain emotional memories.

  The volume of the hippocampus in a woman’s brain deceases, as aforementioned, during pregnancy and regains its normal size a few months after giving birth.

  The amygdala, which is, inter alia, the main generator of the sense of fear and emotion-derived urges such as aggressiveness, is larger in men’s brains, and some relate it to men’s tendency to act more competitively than woman. The amygdala in men’s brain also contains more testosterone receptors, which makes the finger of men’s amygdala more prone to pull the trigger of motivation for aggressiveness.

  A Woman’s Word and A Man’s Word

  Generally speaking, we might say that several studies show that women “document” social situations better and detect “emotional
nuances” that accompany them better than men. On the other hand, men were more accurate regarding details with respect to violent events. It might be that the emotional barometer among women is more prone to failure in extreme violent situations, which compromises their ability to preserve the impressions of the experience as it is.

  Philosophy of Gender-Dependent Risk Management

  The different brain of men and women also results in a different behavioral tendency with respect to risk management philosophy in various aspects of life. When referring to five fields of coping with life—health-related, morals-related, financial-related, social-related and recreation-related—it was found that women are significantly more deterred by risks, compared to men, in four out of the five fields (except for the social-related field).

  Chapter 17: The Aging Brain

  Old Age—Advantages Along with Disadvantages

  During the passage from childhood to old age, it seems that time turns from a friend to a rival. The birthday experience turns from a celebration of achievement to a painful reminder, which indicates that many of us turn from chronophiles to chronophobes.

  Comical descriptions regarding the hardships and disadvantages of old age are common. “It’s like playing billiards with a rope” was the response of comedian George Burns when he was asked about having sex at the age of ninety. One financial disadvantage is that, in old age, the candles cost more than the birthday cake.

  “I am a person”: Homo sum, with all of the weak and strong points that come from it. Even at an old age, recognizing the weaknesses and strengths that match our age will allow us to minimize their damages and maximize their strengths respectively.

  Steps of Acquisition and Loss

  The advantages of natural aging are acquired gradually and with hard work, and so are the disadvantages, which usually reveal themselves gradually.

  It seems that, at an old age, we tend to encode less and less specific memories, such as memories of the episodic type that have personal significance. A real-life example can illustrate this: After a grandmother and her young granddaughter watch a children’s play together, it is likely that the granddaughter remembers various details from the play better than her grandmother. The “average” grandmother is likely to have watched a number of plays in the course of her life, and the plot of this specific play is not that “special” to her, as opposed to the granddaughter to whom it is very special.

  On the other hand, the grandmother’s brain is filled with more inclusive (generic) memories that constitute a type of supercategory for more specific memories, which are considered the basic layer of wisdom. Wisdom is based, to a large extent, on a multitude of generic memories, which allows for rapid recognition of patterns that can be applied to a wide variety of phenomena.

  Studies show that processing-related laterality (i.e., the different types of input that each of the hemispheres tends to process—for example, the natural tendency of the left hemisphere is to process verbal input, whereas the tendency of the right hemisphere is to process visual-spatial input) weakens in the aging brain.

  The activity in the frontal lobes during performance of a cognitive task tends to be more bilateral among old people compared to the tendency to “choose sides,” which is common among young people. As we become older, the asymmetric pattern of brain activity decreases. It seems that the growing tendency of cooperation between the two hemispheres of the brain among old people derives, at least partially, from the need to compensate for the decreased efficiency of processing in each half separately. Using the pattern recognition processing method, which is more typical of an old brain, compensates for the neural wear that takes place as we grow older.

  The Complexity of Old Age

  Many old people speak about the humiliation they experience when they feel that their image seems to be transparent in the eyes of other people. Their presence is not taken into consideration as part of the people who deserve proper consideration at a certain scene. Also known are the burning burns of the insult felt by the elderly who have lost their position in the family. The value of their share in the stock exchange of importance, as determined mostly by young “value traders,” decreases continuously.

  Society nowadays tends to emphasize the losses related to old age but almost totally ignores the accumulated insights—assets that are the hidden treasure of old age.

  According to a common supposition, the bite of the teeth of time blunts the sharpness of our intellectual sword that fights the dragons of mystery in our world on a daily basis.

  The deep streams of our life, however, shake, as years go by, the ship of our brain across streams and opposing streams, in terms of loss and acquisition of new abilities and skills. The directionality is not uniform. At an old age we experience loss of capabilities and thinking skills, on the one hand, but there are also deep and wide-perspective insights, on the other hand. Reinforcement versus extinguishing. The tough struggles of life are often our best mentors, and being old often means to learn a lesson from difficult crises.

  A Harvard study on the development of old people is a long-term study (which follows the same subjects for years) that followed (and still follows) subjects from the last stages of adolescence until old age. One of the conclusions drawn from the study is the conclusion of psychiatrist George Valliant, who analyzed the findings and found that many old people acquire new skills at an old age, and most of them are more involved in society than they used to be as young people. The range of skills of many of the subjects is increased at an old age, and this challenges the common notion that sees aging as a monotonous process of retreat and fading out.

  The solstice of our life (solstice is the day of change—the twenty-first of June in the northern half of Earth and the twenty-first of December in the southern part of Earth; this day is the longest day of the year, and its night is the shortest night of the year), or, metaphorically speaking, the time in which we are at our best and from that point our function gradually deteriorates, is not uniform with regard to our various skills, some of which will reach solstice at the height of the mountain of the years.

  Old Age Wrinkles of an Exhausted Brain

  During the advanced stage of adulthood, old age wrinkles appear in our brain as a result of age-dependent changes in structure and function.

  These are some of the changes in structure and function that take place in the old brain: a decrease in the density of synapses, disconnection between adjacent neurons, a decrease in the amount of blood that reaches brain cells, a decrease in the amount of neurotransmitters that mediate communication between brain cells, accumulated damage to the cells’ power stations (the mitochondria), and change in the structure of the proteins of brain cells, which disrupts their function. On the other hand stands the cognitive reserve—the ability to back up failing brain areas, to compensate for the wear of various skills, and using our finger (or more than one finger) to block the cracks in the dam.

  When old age wrinkles appear in the brain, all of a sudden the sky seems lower. We feel that the limits of our ability are minimized. The slowing down of thinking processes might affect our brain when it looks from its position from the height on the mountain of years. A “decrease in memory” is a general term that commonly refers to the difficulty related to various cognitive skills and not necessarily to memory function impairments. Along with memory difficulties, the aging brain might experience a decrease in the span of attention, difficulty in focusing the beam of attention, a decrease in mental stamina, a decrease in the capacity of perceiving new perception stimulations, the speed of their processing, etc.

  As we grow older, there is also a decrease in brain flexibility (neuroplasticity), and the maneuvering space for designing brain maps becomes smaller.

  During childhood, brain maps that frequently encode neuropsychological skills are shaped in our brain. Structurally, the maps are networks of neurons that are connected in the three spatial dimensions in the brain, and in the fourth dimension a
s well—the timing of their activity (the aspect of chrono-architecture). There are many degrees of freedom in shaping these maps. These structures are the basic layer of the towers of perceptions and habits on which our personality is based.

  As we grow older, and operational flexibility decreases, it is more difficult to deactivate maps of undesirable neuropsychological skills and more difficult to learn “new tricks.”

  In tests that were intended to check the ability to skip between conceptual groups, it was found that, during old age, our brain is more prone to thinking permanence—to a point of fixation—and, in a sort of mental inertia, we tend to stick to the conceptual group we are familiar with and hesitate more about skipping to another group.

  The duration of a thinking beat in the old brain is longer, and it tends to scatter more, due to the difficulty of the prefrontal lobes in focusing the beam of attention. Our brain tends to be more democratic, in the sense that a larger number of brain areas are active while a task is being performed, but also more anarchic, and less task-oriented and focused on it.

  Factors that affect the retreat in the efficiency of thinking skills, which is common in old age, are, among other things, a retreat in the quality of sensory input, such as the abilities related to smelling, hearing, and eyesight, which become weaker at the level of the sensory organs. “Turbid” input results in “turbidity” of the memory that is encoded from it.