The eyes have it: Men do see things differently to women

The way that the visual centers of men and women’s brains works is different, finds new research published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Biology of Sex Differences. Men have greater sensitivity to fine detail and rapidly moving stimuli, but women are better at discriminating between colors.

    • Frog@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      Hmm… Men are more excited through visuals while women are more excited by touch.

      I’m not actually sure if you are joking.

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          There have been some pretty interesting accounts of what it’s like to start testosterone. Vivid visual sexual fantasies and the like. Gives a new perspective on what being soaked in testosterone for decades does to your brain.

          I’ll see if I can find some when I’m not on mobile.

          • anivia@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            Yeah, ask any female bodybuilder what it’s like and they will tell you exactly that. Despite many of them using doses of testosterone that are still lower than what an average man naturally has

        • JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          We have processed boobs now too?! First they went for our chicken nuggets, and we didn’t take notice…

      • metallic_z3r0@infosec.pub
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        4 months ago

        Their bed nucleus of the stria terminalis should be twice as large as a woman’s, and that’s what guided their gender identities. Not that I’m a biological determinist, just a strict physicalist with no belief in metaphysical choice superceding determinism, but a lot of times the brain’s development has recursive feedback loops such that smaller choices early on can alter the size of brain structures along with sex hormones and the development environment in the womb or even outside of it for a while, the earlier the more significant. All I know is that the size of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis is pretty consistently twice the size in men as it is in women regardless of the gender assigned at birth.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    And most of us absolutely love filling those neurons with images of women

  • huginn@feddit.it
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    4 months ago

    … Men are also ~20% larger than women on average. Is this count standardized by size of the person?

    • L0rdMathias@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Does that include brain size? I mean yeah the total sum of all size comparisons is 20% larger, but like piece per piece that ain’t remotely true (see boobs for an example that defies the total average).

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      That would be an interesting metric, though I’m not sure it would really mean anything.

  • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 months ago

    I’m curious about this. They say that it’s related to in utero exposure to androgens, which means it’s probably not as clear cut as XX vs XY, because intersex folk and folk with atypical hormonal exposure (such as fraternal twins of different sexes, with a shared placenta) experience different levels of exposure, and different reactions to that exposure.

      • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 months ago

        Yes, absolutely. But as I said, it’s probably not as clear cut as whether you’re XX or XY, because there are other factors that can also impact hormone levels and sensitivity to hormones

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Men have greater sensitivity to fine detail and rapidly moving stimuli

    Looks at every first person shooter demographic

    • Emerald@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      So is the power of transness allowing me to obliterate eggs in Shell Shockers?

  • shyguyblue@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Anecdotal proof time:

    My dad’s truck.

    Me, my brother, brothers’ friend and brothers’ friends’ sister, all XY, all see a greenish gray truck.

    My mother, sister-in-law, brothers’ friends’ wife, all XX, all see a dark green truck.

    • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 months ago

      So, for XX folk, the increased colour differentiation comes from fact they carry two sets of genes that encode for colour detection, and because they don’t encode identically, each set creates a ever so slightly different perception of colour. And when you get two similar, but non identical perceptions of colour, you see more hues

      • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 months ago

        I’ve heard that women have more cones in their eyes as well, which leads to a more nuanced sense of differentiation between colors.

        • atro_city@fedia.ioOP
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          4 months ago

          I would really like to see a study on that. Take a color then slowly remove the contrast and ask when the change is discernible. Take a color then slowly transition to another color and ask the same question. Maybe do that with a few hundred people of both sexes and record the differences.

          But it’ll have to take into account where people are from. In Northern countries for example, it wouldn’t surprise me if the difference between blues and whites is much more prominent than reds (snow vs not snow). Or for those living in the jungle all their lives, or those living in cities all their lives, and so on. I’m sure there’ll be obvious differences depending on origin and sex.

          • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            4 months ago

            There’s definitely studies on it. I don’t know how they measure them, but it’s all about the number and type of cones in your eyes because there are a few different types that see different colors. This is why tigers are orange - because their prey lack the cones that see red, so the tigers look like the rest of the background foliage.

      • CrayonRosary@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        My two eyes see slightly different color. Noticed this years ago when looking at a florescent ceiling light with my eyes relaxed such that I was seeing a double image. The two images of the light were a slightly different color.

        I’m a dude.

    • JackFrostNCola@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      This reminds me of my wife and I arguing over whether my shorts were grey or brown, she asks her friends and she just says “oh those, they are taupe”. Which essentially means my wife won that argument.

  • edgemaster72@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    women are better at discriminating between colors.

    Well I’m red-green colorblind so I never stood a chance anyway. If it isn’t in a box of 8 crayons/markers, I don’t attempt to use that color’s name generally, cuz I will never pick the right shade. All the fuschias, magentas, maroons, burnt siennas, teals, cyans, etc. of the world can fuck off.

    • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Isn’t colorblindness almost exclusively found in males too?

      Probably oversimplifying, but it’s something about the mutation being on the X chromosome, meaning women have a backup X and men don’t.

      • CyanideShotInjection@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        It is possible for someone with two X chromosomes to still be colorblind, but since this gene is recessice you have to have the mutation on both chromosomes, which makes it way more rare.

      • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        It’s not really a backup X. In any given cell in a woman’s body, one of the X chromosomes has been inactivated into something called a Barr body. The remaining X chromosome is then the active one.

        Women carriers of the gene defect for protan (causing protanopia in males) exhibit Schmidt’s Sign, an abnormal insensitivity to long wavelengths (red light). This is due to the highly skewed L:M cone ratio caused by the defective gene.

  • monkeyman512@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Does this mean the visual center is 25% larger or that the configuration of cells is different? If it is larger where are are women’s brains larger then men’s brains?

    • L0rdMathias@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      It means there are 25% more, but neurons aren’t the only thing the brain is made of. Idk how much of a size difference, if any, this makes. Considering how sensitive lips and fingers are compared to equal sized parts of your skin in other areas, there might be a similar situation of just having a lot of space in the total structure for extra neurons. It could be a small increase in size, it could have no impact on size, more studies required.

      • monkeyman512@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        At the very least it makes a good exercise in questioning facts to make sure you are not coming to faulty conclusions by misunderstanding.

        • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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          4 months ago

          I dont think we need to tread so lightly around this topic, since we already know that brain mass does not directly tie to intelligence from the simple fact that women have smaller brains on average but are not less mentally capable than men.

          Nobody arguing or even just reading this in good faith would try to frame this as women being mentally inferior.

  • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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    4 months ago

    women are better at discriminating between colors.

    Misread this as saying women are better at racism lol.