Science Writing (EFE).- The brains of men and women show differences in the thickness of their cortex in those countries where there are higher rates of gender inequality, according to a study published today by the American scientific journal PNAS.
Gender inequality is associated with poorer mental health and poorer academic performance in women, recall the researchers, who examined the relationship between gender inequality and brain structure from 7,876 MRI scans of healthy men and women aged 29. countries.
The analysis revealed that in countries with relatively high rates of gender inequality, the cortical thickness of the right hemisphere of the brain was thinner in women than in men.
This diverse cortical thickness was located especially in limbic regions such as the right caudal anterior cingulate and the right medial orbitofrontal, as well as the left lateral occiput, the study indicates.
However, there were no significant differences in cortical thickness between women and men in countries with greater gender equality, says the research, coordinated by Nicolas Crossley of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
The results suggest “a possible relationship between gender inequality and increased risk of mental health problems and lower academic performance,” according to the authors.
These results “suggest a possible neural mechanism underlying women’s poorer outcomes in contexts of gender inequality, as well as highlighting the role of the environment in brain differences between men and women,” the study adds.
In addition, they point “to the potentially dangerous effect of gender inequality on women’s brains and provide initial evidence for neuroscience-based gender equality policies.”
For their study, the team used a gender inequality metric in which they combined the two most widely used: the Gender Gap Index and the Gender Inequality Index.
The researchers’ starting hypothesis was that few structural differences would be observed in the brains of men and women in gender-equal countries, and that the differences would appear with higher levels of gender inequality, as was revealed.