VII. Our Earthuman Ascent: A Major Evolutionary Transition in Twndividuality

5. Half the UniVerse: A Woman's 2020 Wisdome

Ingalhalikar, Madhura, et al. Sex Differences in the Structural Connectome of the Human Brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111/823, 2014. After years of disparate study upon this subject, a nine member team of University of Pennsylvania Medicine School and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia researchers, aided by the latest neuroimage abilities, can say that a definitive result has been achieved. As the quotes convey, distinct complementary qualities do distinguish male and female cerebral hemispheres, which indeed quantitatively confirm perennial archetypes and theories. While men have more intra-hemisphere connectivity for fine detail perception and fast motor response, women have enhanced inter-hemisphere communication which avails an integral synthesis of dot, relation and contextual field. A commentary by neuroscientist Larry Cahill in the same issue lauds the project as a sophisticated affirmation of an actual gender complementarity, See also a later note Yes, There is a Female and Male Brain by Marek Glezerman in this journal (113/E1971, 2016) that supports these findings.

Sex differences in human behavior show adaptive complementarity: Males have better motor and spatial abilities, whereas females have superior memory and social cognition skills. In this work, we modeled the structural connectome using diffusion tensor imaging in a sample of 949 youths (aged 8–22 y, 428 males and 521 females) and discovered unique sex differences in brain connectivity during the course of development. Connection-wise statistical analysis, as well as analysis of regional and global network measures, presented a comprehensive description of network characteristics. In all supratentorial regions, males had greater within-hemispheric connectivity, as well as enhanced modularity and transitivity, whereas between-hemispheric connectivity and cross-module participation predominated in females. However, this effect was reversed in the cerebellar connections. Analysis of these changes developmentally demonstrated differences in trajectory between males and females mainly in adolescence and in adulthood. Overall, the results suggest that male brains are structured to facilitate connectivity between perception and coordinated action, whereas female brains are designed to facilitate communication between analytical and intuitive processing modes. (Abstract)

Sex differences are of high scientific and societal interest because of their prominence in behavior of humans and nonhuman species. This work is highly significant because it studies a very large population using the diffusion-based structural connectome of the brain, identifying novel sex differences. The results establish that male brains are optimized for intrahemispheric and female brains for interhemispheric communication. The developmental trajectories of males and females separate at a young age, demonstrating wide differences during adolescence and adulthood. The observations suggest that male brains are structured to facilitate connectivity between perception and coordinated action, whereas female brains are designed to facilitate communication between analytical and intuitive processing modes. (Significance)

Taken together, these results reveal fundamental sex differences in the structural architecture of the human brain. Male brains during development are structured to facilitate within-lobe and within-hemisphere connectivity, with networks that are transitive, modular, and discrete, whereas female brains have greater interhemispheric connectivity and greater cross-hemispheric participation. Within-hemispheric cortical processing along the posterior-anterior dimension involves the linking of perception to action, and motor action is mediated ipsilaterally by the cerebellum. Greater within-hemispheric supratentorial connectivity combined with greater cross-hemispheric cerebellar connectivity would confer an efficient system for coordinated action in males. Greater interhemispheric connectivity in females would facilitate integration of the analytical and sequential reasoning modes of the left hemisphere with the spatial, intuitive processing of information of the right hemisphere. A behavioral study on the entire sample, of which this imaging study is a subset, demonstrated pronounced sex differences, with the females outperforming males on attention, word and face memory, and social cognition tests and males performing better on spatial processing and motor and sensorimotor speed. (826)

Johnson, Elizabeth. Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints. New York: Continuum, 2003. The Fordham University theologian argues in part that the dualistic reign of men as superior to women need be replaced by an egalitarian anthropology which respects relationships and nurture but is wary defining roles and polarities.

Jordan, Judith. The Relational Self: A New Perspective for Understanding Women’s Development. Strauss, J. and G. Goethals, eds. The Self: Interdisciplinary Approaches. New York: Springer, 1991. An attempt is made to advance beyond ‘a separate, autonomous, objective male self’ to ‘a relational, connected, and empathic female self’ by a natural complementary unity found in modern physics.

Jordan, Judith, et al, eds. The Complexity of Connection. New York: Guilford Press, 2004. In a response to the dominant masculine “myth of instrumental competence” whose competitive, win/lose, individualist agenda oppresses women and minorities, an alternative “relational competence” is advised. This complement is distinguished by a constructive, empathic mutuality between persons which nurtures tolerance and shared learning rather than a power trip.

Keresztes, Laszlo, et al. Identifying Super-Feminine, Super-Masculine and Sex-Defining Connections in the Human Braingraph. arXiv:1912.02291. Eotovos University, PIT Bioinformatics Group researchers continue their project to avail the latest flow of neuroimaging results, now available via open access, which further support these title gender distinctions (search Balazs Szalkai for earlier postings). As the quotes say, ever again a woman’s cognitive faculties are found to be generally superior to male capacities.

For more than a decade now, thousands of cerebral connections with diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) techniques have been achieved and published. In the present contribution, by applying the 1200 Subjects Release of the Human Connectome Project, we identify just 102 connections out of the total number of 1950 connections in the 83-vertex graphs of 1065 subjects, without any error about the sex of the subject. We were able to identify two graph edges out of these 102, whose weights measured in fiber numbers are high, then the connectome belongs to a female subject, independent of other edges. Similarly, we have identified 3 edges from these 102, whose weights, if two of them are high and one is low, imply that the graph belongs to a male subject. We call the former state super-feminine and the other super-masculine. (Abstract excerpt)

It is known for several years that the female and the male connectomes have different properties as graphs. The work of [28] has proven – on a publicly un-available dataset – that the ratio of inter-hemispheric connections vs. the intra-hemispheric connections differs in males and females. Our group has shown on a publicly available dataset that several deep graph-theoretical properties, which are usually applied in the characterization of the quality of large computer interconnection networks [29], are better in the braingraphs of women than in men. (2)

Knox, Jean. Archetype, Attachment, Analysis: Jungian Psychology and the Emergent Mind. New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2003. An attempt to marry traditional Jungian concepts with the new complexity theories. In this view, archetypes are seen more as psychic patterns of relationship than as prior, fixed structures.

The principle of self-organizing emergent properties of the human mind is rapidly gaining ground over a more genetically deterministic model. Developmental research supports the view that new meaning is constantly being created as a central part of the process of psychological development. (52)

Konner, Melvin. Women After All: Sex, Evolution, and the End of Male Supremacy. New York: Norton, 2015. In a 400 page work filled with vignettes from mammalian and hominid societies, the Emory University anthropologist, physician, and author engages the desperate need for an epochal appreciation and attainment of gender equality. At the outset, it is strongly put that the present state of our terminal civilization is due in most part to violent male obsessions, which run rampant because of the total absense of empathic female mitigation. This late situation is an anomaly and aberration in history and evolution that must be admitted, and corrected. The resolution can only be a recognition, and recovery of a natural complementarity of feminine and masculine archetypal qualities. A companion 2015 paper Sex Equality can Explain the Unique Social Structure of Hunter-Gather Bands herein (Dyble) is just one confirmation.

A lively, richly informed argument for the natural superiority of women from the acclaimed author of The Tangled Wing. There is a human genetic fluke that is surprisingly common, due to a change in a key pair of chromosomes. In the normal condition the two look the same, but in this disorder one is malformed and shrunken beyond recognition. The result is a shortened life span, higher mortality at all ages, an inability to reproduce, premature hair loss, and brain defects variously resulting in attention deficit, hyperactivity, conduct disorder, hypersexuality, and an enormous excess of both outward and self-directed aggression. It is called maleness.

In Women After All, Melvin Konner traces the arc of evolution to explain the relationships between women and men. With patience and wit he explores the knotty question of whether men are necessary in the biological destiny of the human race. He draws on multiple, colorful examples from the natural world—such as the mating habits of the octopus, black widow, angler fish, and jacana—and argues that maleness in humans is hardly necessary to the survival of the species. Recent human history has upset this balance, as a dense world of war fostered extreme male dominance. But our species has been recovering over the past two centuries, and an unstoppable move toward equality is afoot. It will not be the end of men, but it will be the end of male supremacy and a better, wiser world for women and men alike.

“Women After All is astonishingly insightful…. It is not always males who are the problem. At issue is the utterly ruthless processes of sexual selection which in humans are magnified still further by patriarchal ideologies. Women After All provides a richly informed, up-to-the-minute and sensible exploration of a highly charged topic. It is the best available examination of how and why men and women differ and how twenty-first-century humans can use this knowledge to forge a better world.” (Sarah Blaffer Hrdy)

Lauter, Estella and Carol Schreier Rupprecht, eds. Feminist Archetypal Theory. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985. Scholars in search of a way to frame the male dominance of society and thought enlist Jung’s view of a lifelong individuation toward a balance between feminine and masculine. But as a product of his age, Jung relegated women to a nurture role, with men still running the world.

Lerner, Gerda. The Creation of Patriarchy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. A classic work of historical and social research that castigates eons of oppressive male dominance. Lerner goes on to affirm a "complementarity" of female and male personal qualities and roles as a way to their imperative future resolution.

Lippa, Richard. Gender-Related Individual Differences and National Merit Test Performance. Ellis, Lee and Linda Ebertz, eds. Males, Females and Behavior. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998. Girls who had some degree of male attributes and boys with a modicum of female aptitudes did better in scholastic test situations. This article is cited as one example among many in humankind’s learning project which make a quantified case for a balanced reciprocity.

Llorens, Anais, et al. Gender Bias in Academia. Neuron. 109/13, 2021. Into the hyper 2020s, the extent to which scientific practitioners and their institutes remain disproportionally male has become untenable and must be radically changed. Here some 90 coauthors (~10 men) from around the world including Danielle Bassett and Nancy Kopell post a comprehensive (wo)manifesto across every aspect from hiring bias, workplace behavior, funding equity, publication acceptance, et alia. A forceful effort to cite and rectify this basic aberration from which all other insults and calamities derive may be the most important mission. )A recent book chapter is Aging Boys will be the Death of Us.)

Despite increased awareness of the lack of gender equity in academia and a growing number of initiatives to address issues of diversity, change is slow, and inequalities remain. A major source of inequity is gender bias, which has a substantial negative impact on the careers, work-life balance, and mental health of underrepresented groups in science. Here, we argue that gender bias is not a single problem but manifests as a collection of distinct issues that impact researchers’ lives. We disentangle these facets and propose concrete solutions that can be adopted by individuals, academic institutions, and society. (Abstract)

Luders, Eileen, et al. Parasagittal Asymmetries of the Corpus Callosum. Cerebral Cortex. 16/3, 2006. UCLA and University of Zurich neuropsychologists, including Eric Zaidel, avail 21st century MRI imaging methods and enhanced computer analysis to gain novel insights into the role of this significant bundle of fibers connecting our complementary brain hemispheres. Among the results reported, additional proof is given for the gender tendencies of a main left side emphasis in males, while female brains tend to evenly balance left and right modes. We add that this increasingly verified finding ought to now be appreciated as a major scientific distinction and discovery. It is commonly held that men deal in dots, but miss connections. But women do not employ a right bias of sensitive, “irrational,” holistic emotions only, as long defined, rather both competitive entity and cooperative empathy are equally integrated.

In regard, a popular quip is that if Lehman Brothers were Sisters, they would not have gone bankrupt through reckless, myopic, self-serving investments. Might an obvious application be to view the United States “bicameral” two party government, “two sides of the aisle,” as similar to brain hemispheres, but that are trapped in gridlock opposition. A truly organic, intelligent democracy would join both right Republican “me” individual with left Democratic “We” community. A worldwide bilateral brain, and her/his consequent genesis universe discovery, would thus be more feminine in natural kind and in humane peacefulness.

The present study revealed distinctive and extensive asymmetries in the anterior body and additionally in a small and less significant region in the anterior third of the CC of males. In contrast, asymmetry in females was less significant in general and applied to smaller callosal regions in the anterior body, in the anterior third and additionally at the border between the isthmus and splenium. (352) Our findings are of particular interest considering previous results which indicated that right-handed males show significantly different depths of the central sulcus in the two hemispheres, whereas no interhemispheric asymmetry was found in females. Similarly, functional imaging revealed sex differences in peri-rolandic asymmetries in a tactile discrimination task, where females predominantly activated both premotor cortices but males showed an asymmetric activation. (352)

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