Male Brain Cells a Mystery

[Barbara Mallut <Barb_MSN@xxxxxxx>]

Dear List-friends... I found the following interesting (and have always
thought that male brain cells were kinda a mystery, anyway!) <grinning,
ducking & running>

Barb Mallut
barb_msn@xxxxxxx
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Male Brain Cells a Mystery

Danish researchers say they have discovered that men have about 4 billion more
brain cells than women. But what men do with the extra brain power is a
mystery.

The researchers, led by Bente Pakkenberg, a female neurologist in Copenhagen,
examined the brains of 94 adult corpses ranging in age from 18 to 93. The
average age of the dead men was 52; the women, 64. Only people whose brains
showed no signs of drug or alcohol addiction or dementia were included in the
study.

Making use of a mathematical model, a telescope and a television screen, the
researchers counted the number of neurons found in the cortex of the brains of
each of the cadavers, the Washington Times reports.

The cortex is the part of the brain that controls speech, abstract thinking
and other higher brain functions.

The researchers found that the average number of brain cells in men was 23
billion while the female average was about 19 billion.

Reporting their findings in the Journal of Comparative Neurology, Pakkenberg
said she was very surprised by the results and is not sure what they mean.

"Right now it is a mystery," she said. "The knowledge we already have shows
men are not smarter than women. The average IQ score comes out the same in
males and females."