Researchers have found the differences between men and women when it comes to the brain structures and sizes. In the largest study conducted, men have bigger brains, while women tend to have thicker cortices, a region of the brain associated with intelligence.

The researchers from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland conducted one of the largest studies among men and women to analyze the structures and sizes of the brain of both sexes. Their findings have revealed that men and women do have differences in each particular region.

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The researchers examined the brains of approximately 5,200 participants older than the age of 40, half women and half men. The group belongs to the larger UK Biobank study that collects health data on over 500,000 individuals.

For this particular study, the participants were tested using structural magnetic resonance imaging. The MRIs divide the different types of brain tissues such as neurons and the connections between them.

Men have larger brains but women have larger subregions of the cortex - region associated with making choices, sensory input, memory, and learning. These variations do not explain why men and women behave differently, but it could be an answer why some medications are effective in men than in women or vice versa.  

Researchers also emphasize that these differences do not necessarily alter the actual behavioral differences, like intelligence.

Stuart Ritchie, lead author of the paper and a psychologist, says that the findings are all about showing the differences of structures and sizes, although the causes of the differences remain unknown. Different social and environmental factors may play a huge role why people interact differently with each other.

Ritchie also believes that understanding structural variability helps medical experts to determine why some diseases affect women and men differently, and by understanding the variations of brain structures, better sex-specific treatments may develop.