As uncanny as the fights and words may appear, it is worse for men to bear with the memory power of their women counterparts. Needless to say, women beat men in quarreling and more precisely in remembering every detail of an ancient fight or argument. Experts hold an interesting view with regard to the gender gap that exists in the game of “remembering harsh words” which they feel has a scientific reason.
Marianne J. Legato, an MD and founder of the Partnership for Gender-Specific Medicine at the Columbia University states that “Men and women are different in every system of the body, and nowhere is this truer than in the brain“. This shows how gender determines the extent to which one can remember things too.
Why Women Have Sharper Memories?
Women are said to possess sharper memories owing to 2 factors – higher blood flow rate to the brain (also to parts that control language) and a higher concentration of estrogen levels.
There are 2 areas where the memory of women are said to supersede that of men – Spoken Words and Unpleasant, Frightening and Stressful Experiences.
Spoken Words
Dr Legato in her book “Why Men Never Remember and Women Never Forget” says that spoken words form an indefinite part of a woman’s memory especially when stories are read out loudly from books or words from past verbal arguments.
Dr Legato explains that due to an increased level of blood flow to the brain women tend to hold onto these words and/or arguments better than men. In other words, Marianne says that they are better “packed” and can be easily recalled by women later after weeks or even months.
Unpleasant, Frightening and Stressful Experiences
Dr Marianne explains that due to higher levels of estrogen in their bodies, an enlarged neuron field is activated in the brain of women during upsetting situations. As a result, women tend to be more severely and deeply affected by the trauma of a situation or event than men.
Dr Legato adds by saying that “Simply remembering an unpleasant incident can bring back the same terrible sadness and agitation to women that they experienced at the time.”
Since gender has played such an important role in the construction of society, it is important to identify the parameters and the extent to which men and women can differ. Though upsetting words and situations aren’t pleasant things to remember, the memories of women can prove better in crime scenes or accidents.
Don’t let harsh words slip out of your mouth ever again in front of women because they have an enriched-brain to get back on you even after weeks. In addition, couples should ensure that duels are controlled in time before the clash of words – abuses, etc creep in to last for a long time if not for a lifetime, at least for women!
