Linguistic Functions and The

Brain
Differences between Men and Women
Language and The Brain
Brocas Area is responsible for speech
production while Wernickes Area
deals with speech comprehension.

However, recent study suggests that

both areas are functional in both
production and comprehension
(Poeppel et al., 2008; Caplan, 2006).
Lateralization of Brain Functions
Some functions or processes are more dominant in one brain hemisphere
Language and the Brain Sex Differences
Women show better equivalence between the two sides of the brain
than men.
Womens brains appear to be more globally organized for specific
functions.
Mens brains are more highly lateralized with verbal functions in the
left hemisphere and spatial functions in the right.
Linguistic functions are more spread over the brain in women than in
men. (Beeching, 2002)
Verbal Ability
Women display superior innate language ability.
They also demonstrate
a wider range of linguistic variants and in various tests.
Superior skills in fluency, speaking, listening, vocabulary, spelling
Female people use a larger linguistic repertoire and a larger number
of styles even than the men of the same social group. (Chambers in
Beeching, 2002)
Aphasia
Aphasia refers to the language disorders caused by brain damage.
Men are more likely to suffer aphasic speech disorders after brain damage
and they four times more likely to suffer autism and dyslexia than are
women. (Kimura in Beeching, 2002)
Men were affected after damage to almost any part of the left hemisphere
whereas women were usually not affected unless the damage was large in
the anterior region (Taylor & Ounsted in Beeching, 2002)
McGlone (1977) suggested that females have greater bi-hemispheric
representation of language than males because aphasia was more common
in males with left hemisphere damage (48% in males vs. 13% in females).
Furthermore, she found that for females only, language deficits were
observed after both right and left hemisphere damage.
Implications of Gender Asymmetry
Gender asymmetry explain womens greater verbal abilities and
linguistic wellbeing.
Males superiority in spatial abilities is also explained through their
brain structure.
Womens spatial abilities are controlled by both sides of the brain leading
to occasional overlaps in functions.
Why? Corpus Callosum
Corpus Callosum
Women have a thicker corpus callosum than men.
This means that women have more connections between the left and
right hemispheres.
Different emotional responses in men and women can be explained
by the differences in their brain structures.
Since emotions and speech functions are kept in different parts of the
brain in men, they have difficulties in expressing feelings through
speech. (Beeching, 2002)
Grey Matter Density
Most of the brain cell bodies are contained in the grey matter,
which also includes the brain regions controlling seeing,
hearing, memory, emotions, speech, decision making and
self-control. (Miller & Alston, 2008)

Bilinguals have a higher density of grey matter in the left

inferior parietal cortex in comparison to monolinguals.

Density increases with second language proficiency, but

decreases as the age of acquisition increases. (Mechelli, 2004)

Women have higher gray to white matter ratios in every study

except one in children and adolescents (Wilke et al. 2007).
Conclusion
Females have thicker connections between two hemispheres.
Also, the density of the grey matter is higher in females.
The differences suggest that the same brain regions can function
differently in men and in women to produce the same behavioral
responses. (Goldstein et al., 2005)
It is possible that girls have greater innate language skills than boys.
This verbal advantage on behalf of girls may also be strengthened
through socialization. (Beeching, 2002)
References
Beeching K. (2002), Gender, Politeness and pragmatic particles in
French. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins
Caplan, D. (2006). "Why is Broca's Area Involved in Syntax?". Cortex,
42(4), 469471.
Goldstein, J. M., Poldrack, R., Breiter, H. C., Makris, N., Goodman, J.
M., Jerram, M., ... Seidman, L. J. (2005). Sex differences in prefrontal
cortical brain activity during fMRI of auditory verbal working memory.
Neuropsychology, 19(4), 509-519.
Mechelli, A. (2004). Structural Plasticity in the Bilingual Brain. Nature
431: 757.
References
Miller, A. K. H., Alston, C. (2008). Variation with age in the volumes of
grey and white matter in the cerebral hemispheres of man:
measurements with an image analyser. Neuropathology and Applied
Neurobiology, 6(2), 119132.
Poeppel, D. (2001). Pure word deafness and the bilateral processing
of the speech code. Cognitive Science 25 (5): 679693.
Wilke, M., Krageloh-Mann, I., Holland, S.K. (2007) Global and local
development of gray and white matter volume in normal children and
adolescents. Exp Brain Res, 178, 296-307.