The Female Brain

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CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THE FEMALE BRAIN

THE CAST OF NEURO-HORMONE CHARACTERS

PHASES OF A FEMALE’S LIFE

INTRODUCTION:
What Makes Us Women

ONE
The Birth of the Female Brain

TWO
Teen Girl Brain

THREE
Love and Trust

FOUR
Sex: The Brain Below the Belt

FIVE
The Mommy Brain

SIX
Emotion: The Feeling Brain

SEVEN
The Mature Female Brain

EPILOGUE
The Future of the Female Brain

APPENDIX ONE:
The Female Brain and Hormone Therapy

APPENDIX TWO:
The Female Brain and Postpartum Depression

APPENDIX THREE:
The Female Brain and Sexual Orientation

NOTES

REFERENCES

THE FEMALE BRAIN IS ONE OF THE MOST-TALKED-ABOUT BOOKS OF THE YEAR

COPYRIGHT

For my husband,
Samuel Barondes
,

My son,
John Whitney Brizendine
,

And in loving memory of
Louise Ann Brizendine

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T
HIS BOOK HAD
its beginnings during my educational years at the University of California, Berkeley; Yale; Harvard; and University College, London, so I would like to thank the teachers and fellow students who most influenced my thinking during those years: Frank Beach, Mina Bissel, Henry Black, Bill Bynum, Dennis Charney, Marion Diamond, Marilyn Farquar, Carol Gilligan, Paul Greengard, Tom Guteil, Les Havens, Florence Haseltine, Marjorie Hayes, Peter Hornick, Stanley Jackson, Valerie Jacoby, Kathleen Kells, Kathy Kelly, Adrienne Larkin, Howard Levitin, Mel Lewis, Charlotte McKenzie, David Mann, Daniel Mazia, William Meissner, Jonathan Muller, Fred Naftolin, George Palade, Roy Porter, Sherry Ryan, Carl Salzman, Leon Shapiro, Rick Shelton, Gunter Stent, Frank Thomas, Janet Thompson, George Vaillant, Roger Wallace, Clyde Willson, Fred Wilt, and Richard Wollheim.

During my years on the faculty at Harvard and the University of California, San Francisco, my thinking has been influenced by Bruce Ames, Cori Bargmann, Regina Casper, Francis Crick, Mary Dallman, Herb Goldings, Deborah Grady, Joel Kramer, Fernand Labrie, Jeanne Leventhal, Sindy Mellon, Michael Merzenich, Joseph Morales, Eugene Roberts, Laurel Samuels, Carla Shatz, Stephen Stahl, Elaine Storm, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Rebecca Turner, Victor Viau, Owen Wolkowitz, and Chuck Yingling.

My colleagues, staff, residents, medical students, and patients in the Women’s and Teen Girls’ Mood and Hormone Clinic have contributed in many ways to this work: Denise Albert, Raya Almufti, Amy Berlin, Cathy Christensen, Karen Cliffe, Allison Doupe, Judy Eastwood, Louise Forrest, Adrienne Fratini, Lyn Gracie, Marcie Hall-Mennes, Steve Hamilton, Caitlin Hasser, Dannah Hirsch, Susie Hobbins, Fatima Imara, Lori Lavinthal, Karen Leo, Shana Levy, Katherine Malouh, Faina Nosolovo, Sarah Prolifet, Jeanne St. Pierre, Veronica Saleh, Sharon Smart, Alla Spivak, Elizabeth Springer, Claire Wilcox, and Emily Wood.

I also thank my other colleagues, students, and staff at Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute and UCSF whose contributions I have appreciated: Alison Adcock, Regina Armas, Jim Asp, Renee Binder, Kathryn Bishop, Mike Bishop, Alla Borik, Carol Brodsky, Marie Caffey, Lin Cerles, Robin Cooper, Haile Debas, Andrea DiRocchi, Glenn Elliott, Stu Eisendrath, Leon Epstein, Laura Esserman, Ellen Haller, Dixie Horning, Marc Jacobs, Nancy Kaltreider, David Kessler, Michael Kirsch, Laurel Koepernick, Rick Lannon, Bev Lehr, Descartes Li, Jonathan Lichtmacher, Elaine Cooper Lonnergan, Alan Louie, Theresa McGinness, Robert Malenka, Charlie Marmar, Miriam Martinez, Craig Nelson, Kim Norman, Chad Peterson, Anne Poirier, Astrid Prackatzch, Victor Reus, John Rubenstein, Bryna Segal, Lynn Shroeder, John Sikorski, Susan Smiga, Anna Spielvogel, David Taylor, Larry Tecott, Renee Valdez, Craig Van Dyke, Mark Van Zastrow, Susan Voglmaier, John Young, and Leonard Zegans.

I am very grateful to those who have read and critiqued drafts of this book: Carolyn Balkenhol, Marcia Barinaga, Elizabeth Barondes, Diana Brizendine, Sue Carter, Sarah Cheyette, Diane Cirrincione, Theresa Crivello, Jennifer Cummings, Pat Dodson, Janet Durant, Jay Giedd, Mel Grumbach, Dannah Hirsch, Sarah Hrdy, Cynthia Kenyon, Adrienne Larkin, Jude Lange, Jim Leckman, Louisa Llanes, Rachel Llanes, Eleanor Maccoby, Judith Martin, Diane Middlebrook, Nancy Milliken, Cathy Olney, Linda Pastan, Liz Perle, Lisa Queen, Rachel Rokicki, Dana Slatkin, Millicent Tomkins, and Myrna Weissman.

The work presented here has particularly benefited from the research, writings, and advice of Marty Altemus, Arthur Aron, Simon Baron-Cohen, Jill Becker, Andreas Bartels, Lucy Brown, David Buss, Larry Cahill, Anne Campbell, Sue Carter, Lee Cohen, Susan Davis, Helen Fisher, Jay Giedd, Jill Goldstein, Mel Grumbach, Andy Guay, Melissa Hines, Nancy Hopkins, Sarah Hrdy, Tom Insel, Bob Jaffe, Martha McClintock, Erin McClure, Eleanor Maccoby, Bruce McEwen, Michael Meaney, Barbara Parry, Don Pfaff, Cathy Roca, David Rubinow, Robert Sapolsky, Peter Schmidt, Nirao Shah, Barbara Sherwin, Elizabeth Spelke, Shelley Taylor, Kristin Uvnäs-Moberg, Sandra Witelson, Sam Yen, Kimberly Yonkers, and Elizabeth Young.

I also thank supporters with whom I have had lively and influential conversations over the past few years about the female brain: Bruce Ames, Giovanna Ames, Elizabeth Barondes, Jessica Barondes, Lynne Krilich Benioff, Marc Benioff, ReVeta Bowers, Larry Ellison, Melanie Craft Ellison, Cathy Fink, Steve Fink, Milton Friedman, Hope Frye, Donna Furth, Alan Goldberg, Andy Grove, Eva Grove, Anne Hoops, Jerry Jampolsky, Laurene Powell Jobs, Tom Kornberg, Josh Lederberg, Marguerite Lederberg, Deborah Leff, Sharon Agopian Melodia, Shannon O’Rourke, Judy Rapoport, Jeanne Robertson, Sandy Robertson, Joan Ryan, Dagmar Searle, John Searle, Garen Staglin, Shari Staglin, Millicent Tomkins, Jim Watson, Meredith White, Barbara Willenborg, Marilyn Yalom, and Jody Kornberg Yeary.

I would also like to thank the individuals and private foundations that have supported my work: Lynne and Marc Benioff, Larry Ellison, the Lawrence Ellison Medical Foundation, National Center for Excellence in Women’s Health at UCSF, the Osher Foundation, the Salesforce.com Foundation, the Staglin Family Music Festival for Mental Health, the Stanley Foundation, and the UCSF Department of Psychiatry.

This book was initially developed through the skill and talent of Susan Wels, who helped me write the first draft and organize vast amounts of material. I owe her the greatest debt of gratitude.

I am very thankful to Liz Perle, who first persuaded me to write this book, and to the others who believed in it and worked hard to make it happen: Susan Brown, Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, Deborah Chiel, Marc Haeringer, and Rachel Rokicki. My agent, Lisa Queen of Queen Literary, has been a terrific supporter and has made many brilliant suggestions throughout this process.

I am especially grateful to Amy Hertz, vice president and publisher of Morgan Road Books, who had a vision for this project from the beginning and kept demanding excellence and crafting revisions to create a narrative in which the science comes alive.

I also want to thank my son, Whitney, who tolerated this long and demanding project with grace and made important contributions to the teen chapter.

Most of all I thank my husband and soul mate, Sam Barondes, for his wisdom, endless patience, editorial advice, scientific insight, love, and support.

T
HE
F
EMALE
B
RAIN

1. A
NTERIOR
C
INGULATE
C
ORTEX
(ACC): Weighs options, makes decisions. It’s the worry-wort center, and it’s larger in women than in men.

2. P
REFRONTAL
C
ORTEX
(PFC): The queen that rules the emotions and keeps them from going wild. It puts the brakes on the amygdala. Larger in women, and matures faster in teen girls than in boys by one to two years.

3. I
NSULA
: The center that processes gut feelings. Larger and more active in women.

4. H
YPOTHALAMUS
: The conductor of the hormonal symphony; kicks the gonads into gear. Starts pumping earlier at puberty in females.

5. A
MYGDALA
: The wild beast within; the instinctual core, tamed only by the PFC. Larger in men.

6. P
ITUITARY
G
LAND
: Produces hormones of fertility, milk production, and nurturing behavior. Helps turn on the mommy brain.

7. H
IPPOCAMPUS
: The elephant that never forgets a fight, a romantic encounter, or a tender moment—and won’t let you forget it, either. Larger and more active in women.

THE CAST OF
NEURO-HORMONE CHARACTERS