Men's brains have more connections from front to back, which may heighten their perception. They may be more attuned to what's going on around them so they can take action. Men have stronger connections between brain areas for motor and spatial skills. That means males tend to do a better job at tasks that need hand-eye coordination and understanding where objects are in space, such as throwing a ball or hammering a nail.

On average, male brains are about 10% larger than female brains. "However, bigger doesn't mean smarter," says Daniel Amen, MD, author of Unleash the Power of the Female Brain. He's studied more than 45,000 brain scans. "And no differences have been found in men and women's IQs, regardless of brain size."

MRIs showed the biggest gaps between the sexes were the larger amount of gray matter women had in their hippocampus, a structure that plays a role in memory, and the left caudate, which is thought to control our communication skills. Verma found that in female brains, there's more wiring in regions linked to memory and social cognition. So is it surprising that women tend to be better at understanding how other people are feeling and knowing the right way to respond in social situations?

Ragini Verma, PhD, associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
WebMD Feature Reviewed by William Blahd, MD on July 6, 2016