According to a study published in the journal, Science of Learning, there are no gender differences in math aptitude and brain functioning.
In a comprehensive study of the cerebral development of young boys and girls, the research team from Carnegie Mellon University concluded that children’s brains are similar regardless of their gender.
"We see that children's brains function similarly regardless of their gender. So hopefully we can recalibrate expectations of what children can achieve in mathematics," said study researcher Jessica Cantlon from Carnegie Mellon University in the US.
It was the first neuroimaging study conducted to evaluate biological gender differences in math aptitude for young children, where researchers compared scans to evaluate brain similarities.
The study also included the examination of brain maturity by comparing a child’s scan to that of an adult (63 adults; 25 women), who watched the same math video. The results showed boys' and girls' brain maturity was statistically equivalent in comparison to either men or women in the adult group.
Comparing the results of the “Early Mathematics Test”, a standardised test for three to eight-year-old children (97 children including 50 girls), the researchers said that math ability did not reflect a difference based on gender or with age.
A few days ago, a study also revealed that Indians have smaller brains, in size and width, and that their brains are much more similar to Chinese and Korean brain atlases.
