Boy’s play with cars Girl’s plays with baby dolls
A new study shows that boy monkeys prefer toy cars and girls prefer dolls. I guess this is not such a shock since monkeys are our closet ancester.
This interesting discovery is one of many behavioral differences between the sexes that scientists are exploring with the latest tools of genetics and neuroscience.
These differences date far back in evolutionary history to the time before humans and monkeys separated from their common ancestors. It is estimated that this separation occurred 25 million years ago.
In the experiment, researchers put a variety of toys in front of 44 male and 44 female vervets, a breed of small African monkeys, and measured the amount of time they spent with each object.
Like little boys, some male monkeys pushed a toy car along the ground. Like little girls, female monkeys closely inspected the doll’s bottom. Males also played with balls while females preferred cooking pots. Both were equally interested in neutral objects such as a picture books and a stuffed dog.
We used to think that boys and girls played differently because of the way they were brought up. Now scientists say a creature’s genetic inheritance also plays an important role.
“Vervet monkeys, like human beings, show sex differences in toy preferences,” Alexander wrote in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. “Sex-related object preference appeared early in human evolution,” she said.
Alexander speculated that females of both species prefer dolls because evolution programmed them to care for infants. Males may have evolved toy preferences that involve throwing and moving, skills useful for hunting and finding a mate.
Many studies have shown that men tend to be better at mathematics, map reading and spatial reasoning while women outdo men in verbal and language skills.
Men, he said, have more gray matter in areas dedicated to general intelligence. Women, on the other hand, have far more white matter in those areas.
Gray matter consists of clusters of brain cells, or neurons that process information. White matter refers to the network of specialized cells that support and connect the processing centers. Both are necessary for intelligence.
I would be willing to bet that it is the hormone, testosterone that is responsible for the changing of the brain matter between boys and girls.
