男女大脑各不同：女性天生可同时做多件事

（图片来源于网络）

　　Scientists used MRI imaging to scan the brains of young men and women

　　Male brains are designed to make them better at carrying out single tasks

　　While female brains are designed to carry out many tasks simultaneously

　　Women are also better at socialising in busy situations, claims the study

　　Younger brains have fewer gender differences compared to older brains

　　科学家利用核磁共振成像扫描年轻男性和女性的大脑。

　　男人的大脑天生更加适合执行单任务，而女人的大脑则天生更加适合同时执行多个任务。

　　根据研究，较之男人，女人在复杂的环境下更加善于社交。

　　年轻人的大脑比起年长者的大脑，在性别上的差异更加少。

　　Women have known it for generations – and the proof has finally arrived.

　　女人们知道这些已经有好几代了——现在终于有证据了。

　　Scientists have found that the female brain is ‘hard-wired’ to be better at multi-tasking.

　　Men’s brains, in comparison, are better at concentrating on single complex tasks – whether it be reading a map or cooking a meal.

　　科学家们发现女人的大脑天生更加适合处理多任务。而男性的大脑，相对来说，则在专注于单项复杂工作的时候有更好的表现—不论是阅读地图还是烹饪。

　　Scientists scanned the brains of 949 young men and women in the biggest investigation of its kind to date. Using hi-tech diffusion MRI imaging, they mapped the connections between the different parts of the brains.

　　科学家们做了迄今为止最大规模的一次调查，一共扫描了949个年轻男性和女性的大脑。他们利用高科技扩散磁共振成像设备绘制出了大脑不同部位的连接部分。

　　The researchers discovered that women have far better connections between the left and right sides of the brain, while men display more intense activity within the brain’s individual parts, especially in the cerebellum, which controls motor skills.

　　研究人员发现女性在左右脑的连接方面表现更为出色。而男性则在大脑单个部位上显示更强烈的活动，特别是控制运动技能的小脑，

　　Men also have better connections between the front and back of the brain, giving them a better ability to quickly perceive information and use it immediately to carry out complex tasks. This means they are better at things such as learning to swim or, as the old bone of contention has it, parking a car.

　　男性在前后脑的连接上表现更为突出。这使得男性在理解信息并能快速运用这些信息执行复杂的任务。这意味着，男性会更擅长例如学游泳和停车这类事情。

　　Women are better at, for example, remembering a face, which means making connections between different parts of the brain.

　　女性则更加擅长，例如记住长相，这种需要运用到大脑不同部位的连接。

　　The results are likely to be seen as supporting the theory behind best-selling pop psychology book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus – that the sexes are as different as alien races.

　　Dr Ragini Verma, who carried out the study with colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, said: ‘Of course individuals will differ, always.

　　这个调查结果看上去好像支持了最畅销心理书《男人来自火星，女人来自金星》—男女是不一样的外星种族。Ragini Verma博士，曾在宾夕法尼亚大学和同事一起，进行了一项研究，他说道：“当然人们是不同的，而且一直是这样的。”

　　‘But we said, if you take 1,000 people and analyse the data statistically, what would the male brain look like and what would the female brain look like?’

　　‘但是我们说，如果你扫描1000个人的大脑，然后把得到的数据进行统计分析，来看看男性的大脑长什么样和女性的大脑长什么样?。’

　　She explained: ‘The research shows that if women and men are given a task that involves both logical thinking and intuitive thinking, women will do it better – they are better at connecting the left and the right sides of the brain.

　　她解释道：“研究表明如果女人和男人被交付的任务同时涉及逻辑思维和直觉思维的话，女人完成的更好。”——女性在连接左右脑方面处理的更好。

　　‘If you have an instant action to be performed and you need to do it now, male brains are more attuned to it because the front-back action is more intensely connected.’

　　‘如果你有一个即时任务，需要现在就着手做，那么男性的大脑更加适合处理它，因为前后动作会被更加紧密的连接起来。’

　　Speaking about men’s aptitude for motor skills, she said: ‘The intense activity in the cerebellum means men would be better at learning to ride a bike, learning to swim, reading maps.’

　　说到男人对运动技巧的天资。她解释道：“这种小脑内的激烈活动意味着男人更容易学会骑车，游泳和看懂地图。”

　　she study, involving 428 males and 521 females aged between eight and 22, found that female brains were better at bringing varied pieces of information together.

　　她的研究包括428个男性和521个女性，这些被调查对象年龄在8到22岁之间。通过研究，她发现女性的大脑更加善于把种各样的信息整合到一起。

　　Dr Verma said: ‘If you had to do a task like remembering a face, picking somebody out in a party, that would require you to connect several parts of the brain. Where did I see that face last, what do I see in this person, do I remember this person from somewhere?

　　Verma博士说道：“如果需要做类似于记住长相，聚会中找到某人这样的事儿，那需要你连接使用好几个大脑的部位。想起来我最后一次见这个人在哪，我见到这个人什么，我从哪儿见得这个人。”

　　‘That requires the connection of various sub-networks in the brain – something women are better able to do.’

　　‘那需要连接各种大脑的子网络’—这正是女性擅长的部分。

　　She said that although it has been known for some time that abilities differ by gender, the study showed that these differences are ‘hard-wired’.

　　她说，虽然我们知道性别不同，能力也不同。但研究表明这些差异是天生的。

　　‘These are connections that exist in your brain no matter what,’ she said.‘Of course, individually, this will have variability. The next step would be to quantify this variability.’

　　‘当然，个体不同差异也不同。下一步，将量化这个变化性。’

　　The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also revealed that the difference between genders became pronounced only after puberty.

　　研究还揭示，性别之间的差异仅在青春期过后才变得明显，这些研究结果发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。

　　The participants were split into three age groups, aged eight to 13, 13 and four months to 16, and 17 to 22. The youngest group’s brains showed far less difference than those of the older two.

　　调查的参与者被分成三个年龄组，8至13岁、13零4个月到16岁和17至22岁。最年轻组的大脑显示其差异远比另外两组小。

　　The report said: ‘The results showed fundamental sex differences in the architecture of the human brain.‘Male brains facilitate connectivity between perception and co-ordinated action, whereas female brains facilitate communication between analytical and intuitive processing modes.'

　　报告称：‘研究结果显示了人类大脑结构中基本的性别差异。男性大脑更利于察觉和协调活动之间的连通性，而女性大脑更利于分析和直觉处理方式之间的交流。’