Do Women Really Talk More?

Yes. And this is because they possess higher levels of a key language protein

Do women talk more than men? According to a new study, they do, and the reason for this is the higher presence of a special protein in the female brain called Foxp2. The protein is often referred to as the ‘language gene’ because its mutations in humans have found to cause severe speech and language disorders. A previous study, mentioned in the 2006 book, The Female Brain, written by clinical psychologist Louann Brizendine, claimed that women on an average speak about 20,000 words a day. Men, it claimed, speak about 13,000 words less.

The current study, published in Journal of Neuroscience, found that, among humans, higher levels of the protein exists in the female brain. In the case of rats, males possess twice as much Foxp2. The researchers, a group of neuroscientists and a psychologist from University of Maryland, US, analysed the levels of Foxp2 in the brains of four-day-old female and male rats and compared the ultrasonic distress calls made by these animals when separated from their mothers and siblings. It was found that males called out twice as often as females, and the mother tended to her sons first once they were returned to her. When the researchers increased the production of the protein in the brains of female pups and reduced it in males, the female rats started crying out more often and the males became less vocal. The mothers also started doting on the females first.

The researchers then moved to humans, trying to determine if men and women have an unequal distribution of the ‘language gene’. They tested ten children aged between three and five years, and found that females have up to 30 per cent more Foxp2 than males. ‘This study is one of the first to report a sex difference in the expression of a language-associated protein in humans or animals… The findings raise the possibility that sex differences in brain and behaviour are more pervasive and established earlier than previously appreciated,’ Margaret McCarthy, one of the researchers, told The Telegraph.

 

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