Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life

corpus callosum
that binds the two hemispheres 
together. It serves to connect distant neurons that fi re together, add-
ing dimension and depth to everything you do and think. 
The corpus callosum of a woman is denser than that of a man. 
This means that the two hemispheres of a woman ’ s brain work more 
c01.indd 3
c01.indd 3
1/29/10 10:09:17 AM
1/29/10 10:09:17 AM

---

4 Rew i r e
Yo u r
B r a i n
evenly together. The female brain is more symmetrical. The male 
brain has an asymmetrical torque, which means that the right frontal 
lobe is larger than the left frontal lobe, and the left occipital (back of 
the head) lobe is larger than the right occipital lobe. 
For both sexes, the right hemisphere processes visual and spa-
tial information, enabling you to grasp the “ big picture. ” The right 
hemisphere pays more attention to the context or the gist of a situ-
ation. The left hemisphere, in contrast, is more adept at details, 
categories, and linearly arranged information such as language. The 
right hemisphere is more active when you ’ re learning something 
new. Once the knowledge becomes routine and overlearned, the 
left hemisphere comes more into play. This is another reason that 
language is processed by the left hemisphere. 
The right hemisphere makes better connections with the parts 
of the brain below the cortex, so it is more emotional by nature. 
In other words, it ’ s better able to pick up the emotional climate 
of a conversation. Since women ’ s brains have a better connection 
between the two hemispheres than men ’ s brains do, women are said 
to be more intuitive. Words often carry more emotional meaning for 
women than they do for men. 
There are four lobes in each hemisphere: the frontal lobe, the pari-
etal (middle) lobe, the temporal (side) lobe, and the occipital lobe. 
Each has specifi c talents. For example, when you appreciate a specifi c 
object, such as a chair you sat on at your friend ’ s house, the thoughts 
and feelings you have about the chair are dispersed throughout your 
brain. You remember the elegant shape of the chair through your right 
parietal lobe. You remember the words your friend used to describe 
his trip to Costa Rica through your left temporal lobe, and you process 
the tone of his voice through your right temporal lobe. You remember 
looking back at the chair as you were leaving the room and noticing 
its deep cinnamon color through your occipital lobe. 
Women have a greater density of neurons in the temporal lobe, 
which specializes in language. This verbal advantage begins to appear 
during the fi rst two years of life, when little girls develop the ability 
to talk about six months earlier than little boys do. When developing 
verbal strategies, women activate the left hippocampus (a part of the 
c01.indd 4
c01.indd 4
1/29/10 10:09:18 AM
1/29/10 10:09:18 AM

---

F i r i n g t h e R i g h t C e l l s To g e t h e r
5
brain related to memory) more than men do. Men generally have 
greater visual and spatial skills, because they show greater activity in 
the right hippocampus than women do. 
The most recent addition to our evolutionary development is the 
frontal lobe, which makes up about 20 percent of the human brain. 
In comparison, the frontal lobe of a cat occupies about 3.5 percent 
of its brain. The frontal lobe is the last part of the brain to mature in 
humans; its development is not complete until sometime in the 
third decade of life. 
At the forefront of the frontal lobe, the