Book Report on The Female Brain

Sara Lozano-Sanchez

Anatomy and Physiology

Giannou
February 10, 2015

The Female Brain is a book that unravels the rollercoaster of emotions and thoughts that
make up female brain. For that reason I chose to read the book it was very interesting to be able
to draw parallels between the book, myself, and the women who I make contact with every day.
The organ system that is explained is the female neurological brain system, in the beginning the
areas of the brain and hormones are broken down to a simple way for the reader to understand
the scientific jargon throughout the book (Brizendine, xiii), this yet another reason why I had to
read the book. The book also helped simplify the female brain into terms that were easy to
understand but also entertaining. The female brain matures at a different rate then the male brain
and has different emotional sensors which is often why there is miscommunication with couple
or why baby girls are better at sharing or listening to their parents, these subtle differences do not
make the brain any lesser in intelligence but often are areas which women are criticized the book
The Female Brain helps the reader understand the science behind the emotional outbursts and
incredible gut feelings that are the female brain.
The female nervous system works in the same way as the males. The understanding of the reason
behind behavior that is used today was found in 1924 because of John Watson. His
understanding behind the behavior of the brain was that many of the actions we used were for
adaptation because of evolution (Panksepp, 11). This explanation concludes with many of the
different feelings that Brizendine explains throughout the book, it shows that every emotion and
action created by the brain are for a certain reason.
The structures used in the book are the: anterior cingulate cortex, which weighs options
and makes decisions, the prefrontal cortex, that controls emotions, insula, the structure that
creates gut feelings, the hypothalamus which is the director of the hormones, the pituitary
gland which produces the fertility hormones and the hippocampus is active for memory

especially for emotional events (Brizendine, xiii). The structures of the female brain explained
are the ones that control many of the emotional responses, to everyday life dilemmas.
The first chapter of the book was about the emotions and development of the female
brain. The chapter starts out with an anecdote showing how the female brain works. The
development of the female brain from a young age has a higher content then the young boys
brain to read emotion, all babies are born with the need for mutual gazing because it is the key
to developing the mother infant bondit turns out the theories of the earliest stages of child
development were female-biased, (Brizendine, 15). This quote shows how newborn girls tend to
try to decipher even from a young age what facial expressions mean. This early development by
baby girls begins the contrast between how infant boys process emotion. Could that be why in
the future a husband may not notice the silent treatment his wife is giving him?
The teenage girl brain is something that is easily relatable because of my age. The
uncontrollable mood swings that come with adolescence have been deciphered. The teenage
female brain starts to develop at an earlier age then the boys, this argument can be backed up
with the biology that girls start puberty at generally a younger age. The circuits for social and
verbal connection are more naturally hardwired in the typical female brain, (Brizendine, 14).
This sense of community is something that is typically found in women, this can be seen when
girls go to the bathroom in groups or when toddler girls all play house together.
This chapter showed how even though humans have evolved over millions of years and
how many primal instincts do not go away. When a female feels steady with her life she starts to
look for a mate. Often women are depicted as gold diggers when going after a successful man,
with a steady job, but that instinct shows how when females were looking for a provider for their
future children they would want a man who could help her raise and family, We spent more than

99 percent of the millions of years it took human beings to evolve living in primitive conditions,
(Brizendine, 60). These natural tendencies are what make us chose a partner.
The emotional responses that often boys are confused by as children when their mothers
yell at them are now coming into effect when women have subtle but very drastic emotions, a
man wouldnt notice emotion unless it hit him on the head? (Brizendine 117). Women often
have the internal battle of what to say and what they feel. When women feel emotionally
detached from men, they act in ways that they would imagine are noticeable for the man though
men often have trouble with reading body language. Along with a hurricane or micro
expressions that go unnoticed by men are red flags that stick out in a womans mind giving them
an incredible intuition for reading between the lines of not only words but body language. This
development is what we commonly call a gut feeling.
The anecdotes at the beginning of each chapter help the reader transition into the science
behind the actions and emotions of the female mind. The book was a great read the explanations
of the hormones which cause each emotion are explained clearly with real life examples this is
why the book was educational and entertaining. The female brain has a vast variety of emotions
that correspond to different scenarios in everyday life. Although different from boys, females
have a brain that functions equally efficiently.

Works Cited

Brizendine, Louann. The Female Brain. New York: Morgan Road, 2006. Print.
Panksepp, Jaak. Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. New
York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.