The female brain: How it really works.
Men and women really are different: Here’s how.
By Julie Beun-Chown
http://www.canadianliving.com/relat...ly/the_female_brain_how_it_really_works_3.php
Sex and the 20-second hug
I recently caught up with a university friend I hadn’t seen in 25 years. When I spotted him, my heart leaped and I hugged him. And hugged him. I felt reconnected. He looked a bit confused.
Little wonder. When it comes to men and women, not all cuddles are created equally. A 20-second hug floods the female brain with oxytocin, which creates such a sense of connection that University of New South Wales researchers in Australia are now using it to help troubled couples during therapy.
Men also release oxytocin through affection and tenderness, but their brains are more apt to link it to sex. In a recent fMRI study, Hamann showed university students sexually arousing pictures. Both sexes reacted, but the men’s amygdala and parts of the hypothalamus (parts of which govern sexual pursuit and which are twice as large in men as they are in women) lit up like Parliament Hill on Canada Day. In evolution, men had to have a quick response to visual stimulis. Males who didn’t have it also didn’t have the reproductive advantage, and they didn’t survive.
Men and women really are different: Here’s how.
By Julie Beun-Chown
http://www.canadianliving.com/relat...ly/the_female_brain_how_it_really_works_3.php
Sex and the 20-second hug
I recently caught up with a university friend I hadn’t seen in 25 years. When I spotted him, my heart leaped and I hugged him. And hugged him. I felt reconnected. He looked a bit confused.
Little wonder. When it comes to men and women, not all cuddles are created equally. A 20-second hug floods the female brain with oxytocin, which creates such a sense of connection that University of New South Wales researchers in Australia are now using it to help troubled couples during therapy.
Men also release oxytocin through affection and tenderness, but their brains are more apt to link it to sex. In a recent fMRI study, Hamann showed university students sexually arousing pictures. Both sexes reacted, but the men’s amygdala and parts of the hypothalamus (parts of which govern sexual pursuit and which are twice as large in men as they are in women) lit up like Parliament Hill on Canada Day. In evolution, men had to have a quick response to visual stimulis. Males who didn’t have it also didn’t have the reproductive advantage, and they didn’t survive.
