The New Feminine Brain

New studies into brain function have identified changes in the brain that may explain what is commonly known as the mid-life "fuzzy brain." Researchers at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Toronto examined brain function in 3 groups of subjects--aged 20-30, 40-60 and more than 65. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans,they have been able to determine the level of blood flow and oxygenation in areas of the brain that are engaged in specific functions such as recall as well as areas of the brain engaged in what is associated with a resting state like wandering introspection or internal dialogue--the kind of thinking you do just before you fall asleep , for example.

The study found that in young adults, areas in the brain requiring concentration and recall show intense activity while areas in the brain associated with the restful state are more quiet. In short, the focused left brain eclipses the restful right brain. But at middle age, this pattern breaks down. Instead of showing one area more dominant than the other, studies reveal that in the middle age brain, there is a greater synchronization of the two areas. Memory tasks in the middle aged brain are not as intense and the resting mode remains active at a higher level.

What does this mean? According to the study, this change in brain functions suggests that middle aged and older people are less successful at concentration and memory because they have reduced ability to ignore distracting or irrelevant information.

Sounds like a grim prognosis of us old folks! But researchers at Baycrest are quick to assure us that we need not worry-- the brain does have an adaptable reserve that allows us to cope with the changes provided we keep ourselves mentally and physically challenged.

This provision is reassuring indeed! However, as a woman,I have found greater re-assurance from Dr. Mona Schulz who sees the older, menopausal brain not as a "fuzzy brain,", but as a portal to the intuitive network which might be clogged or deflected by attention deficit disorders. Instead of looking at the older brain as a lesser version of its younger self,a brain that is less attentive, less focused or less retentive, she suggests that the older feminine brain is an entirely different brain altogether.

In The New Feminine Brain, Mona Schulz M.D. Ph.D makes no apologies for a diminished brain focus or left brain. In fact, she suggests that a predominantly left-brain world has made many women unduly stressed because there is little provision made for the necessities of the intuitive self. This is how she describes the situation:

"A woman's menstrual cycle gives her two mind-sets with which to approach the world. For two weeks befor ovulation, we're more likely to be in our left brain, with its better mood and more analytical, rational, focused frame of mind. At that time, we are more closed to intuition. After ovulation, we are more intuitively open and emotionally porous to what's going on in our life(sic)and the lives of loved ones because higher levels of estrogen flow to the left brain.Once we get our period, estrogen levels wane and the relative level of testosterone increases. The right brain takes over."

Environmental and social pressures may force women to stay in their left brain even as their "right brain/body connections and intuition won't let [them] get away with sham and [their] body will rebel." This denial of emotions often leads to illness.

But "with the onset of menopause, this cycling between the left and right hemispheres stops, and the brain can constantly be in this intuitive, porous state" where women are allowed to be true to their physiological selves.

What she suggests then is that women at mid-life should capitalize on this new connected consciousness--this intuitive, porous state. Distractions, attention deficit behavior can block their access to this state. But by learning about how the feminine brain works and how they can integrate their left and right brains, women can "open as many windows as possible into [their] intuition." The distractions that accompany the middle-aged brain may be not be problems at all, but signs of a need for new integration.

The same situation can be true of men as well who have the same basic components as women have in their intuitive network. Men do experience intuitive information, but they may not talk about it. Like women, the older male brain has to grow by making allowances for new intuitive material.

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