研究：女性话多因脑部语言蛋白多_BEC初级作文

研究：女性话多因脑部语言蛋白多

"This study is one of the first to report a sex difference in the expression of a language-associated protein in humans or animals,” said Prof Margaret McCarthy, who led the study.

“The findings raise the possibility that sex differences in brain and behaviour are more pervasive and established earlier than previously appreciated.”

In their study, the researchers attempted to determine what might make male rats more vocal than their female friends.

They separated four-day-old rats from their mothers and then counted the number of times they cried out in the “ultrasonic range”, the frequencies higher than humans can hear, over five minutes.

While both sexes emitted hundreds of cries, the males called out twice as often, they found. But when the pups were returned to the same cage as their mother, she fussed over her sons first.

According to tests compiled on the parts of the brain known to be involved in vocal calls showed the male pups to have up to twice as much Foxp2 protein as the females.

The researchers then increased the production in the brains of female pups and reduced it in males.

This led to the female rats crying out more often and their mothers showing more interest to them. In contrast, males became less “talkative”.

The researchers then tested samples from ten children, aged between three and five, which showed that females had up to a 30 per cent more of the Foxp2 protein than males, in a brain area key to language in humans.