A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think
From eight weeks of gestation onward, three hormones have an outsized impact on the development of the male brain. The first is testosterone, whose rises and drops affect everything from male brain development to sex drive to hair growth. The second is vasopressin, the male bonding hormone. It influences things like his mate-guarding behaviors and bonding.
The third has a complex name and a complex function. Called Müllerian inhibiting substance, it builds many of the circuits in the male brain that are associated with traditional masculinity. It shrinks any remnants of female structures in the developing embryo to grow a male body. And it creates the neural connections for things like muscular action, exploratory behavior, and competitive aggression.
This hormone trio, along with a few other helpers, grows a brain that ends up looking significantly different from the female brain. The amygdala – the part of the brain that handles fight or flight reactions to threats, becomes larger and contains more neurons in the male brain. Their circuits for defending territory are larger, too, while their communication circuits and memory centers have far fewer connections than female brains.
The male brain is bathed in high levels of these hormones until birth and beyond, and they shape his behavior during those early days. For the first year of life, his testosterone levels are on par with an adult man’s. This inhibits brain circuits for recognizing facial expressions, which are smaller than his female-brain counterparts.
By seven months, he can recognize facial expressions of anger or fear in adults, but by twelve months his sensitivity to them plummets. With an immunity to signs of danger or warning, and a neurological drive to explore and track motion, it can challenge even the most attentive caregiver to keep up and keep him safe.
Without brain structures in place to put on the emotional brakes, he’ll likely be easily worked up – and harder to soothe. His outbursts will last longer, and he’ll make less eye contact during these emotional exchanges.
At the end of the first year, his hormone levels decrease as the male brain becomes a juvenile. For the next decade, give or take, he’ll have low, steady hormone levels like his female-brained counterparts. But his brain has been completely structured under the hormonal influence, and his on-the-go, rough-and-tumble impulses will continue through boyhood.
The Male Brain (2010) is a neuroscientist’s account of the interplay between hormones and brain development that shapes the formation and growth of male brains and behavior. Based on decades of research, it argues that the roots of many masculine stereotypes can be seen in neurobiology, and that hormones shape the male brain and outlook for a lifetime.
Ich bin begeistert. Ich liebe Bücher aber durch zwei kleine Kinder komme ich einfach nicht zum Lesen. Und ja, viele Bücher haben viel bla bla und die Quintessenz ist eigentlich ein Bruchteil.
Genau dafür ist Blinkist total genial! Es wird auf das Wesentliche reduziert, die Blinks sind gut verständlich, gut zusammengefasst und auch hörbar! Das ist super. 80 Euro für ein ganzes Jahr klingt viel, aber dafür unbegrenzt Zugriff auf 3000 Bücher. Und dieses Wissen und die Zeitersparnis ist unbezahlbar.
Extrem empfehlenswert. Statt sinnlos im Facebook zu scrollen höre ich jetzt täglich zwischen 3-4 "Bücher". Bei manchen wird schnelle klar, dass der Kauf unnötig ist, da schon das wichtigste zusammen gefasst wurde..bei anderen macht es Lust doch das Buch selbständig zu lesen. Wirklich toll
Einer der besten, bequemsten und sinnvollsten Apps die auf ein Handy gehören. Jeden morgen 15-20 Minuten für die eigene Weiterbildung/Entwicklung oder Wissen.
Viele tolle Bücher, auf deren Kernaussagen reduziert- präzise und ansprechend zusammengefasst. Endlich habe ich das Gefühl, Zeit für Bücher zu finden, für die ich sonst keine Zeit habe.
Hol dir mit Blinkist die besten Erkenntnisse aus mehr als 7.000 Sachbüchern und Podcasts. In 15 Minuten lesen oder anhören!
Jetzt kostenlos testen
Blink 3 von 12 - Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschheit
von Yuval Noah Harari
