What Is the Relationship between Grey Matter and White Matter in the Brains of Men and Women?

The amounts of grey matter and white matter has been found to be significantly different in the brains of men and women, but the intelligence level is generally equivalent for both genders. Men’s brains typically have about 6.5 times more grey matter — the area of the brain that processes information — than women do. Women, however, tend to have about 10 times more white matter, which is responsible for connecting information processing centers within the brain. Although men and women generally score equally on broad intelligence tests, the gender differences between grey matter and white matter might make men more likely to perform better at tasks that require local processing, such as mathematics. Women often excel at tasks that require multiple brain process connections, such as, such as those associated with language.

More about gender differences in brain processes:

• About 84% of grey matter and 86% of white matter in women is in the brain’s frontal lobe, compared with 45% of grey matter and 0% of white matter in men. This might make women more likely to suffer worse brain damage after head trauma.


• One study found that women were 70% more effective than men are at completing several small tasks within a short period of time.


• The ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that determines what a person finds humorous, has been found to be stimulated more quickly in men than in women.