Thank you for visiting my web site. As you can see, we’ve developed a wonderful community of people here who are interested in the female brain, and I have enjoyed blogging and communicating with all of you.

I wanted to let you know, however, that in order to keep the Women’s Mood and Hormone clinic running and meet the deadlines for my next book, “The Male Brain,” which will be published this fall, I must scale back some of my time commitments. I am very much looking forward to reconnecting with you this summer, and I promise we’ll be back, energized and ready to expand the conversation.

If you need to submit an interview or public speaking request, please continue to use this site to reach out to me and members of my team. Although I will not be as available as I’d like to be, we will absolutely consider your request and get back to you as soon as we can. In the mean time, visit our blog archives, listen to old Blog Talk Radio shows, and check out the newly launched TeenBrainPower.com. You’ll find plenty of great information there about how your female brain can function at its best.

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Motherhood can supercharge the female brain, giving lifelong improvements in mental skills and giving protection against the degenerative diseases of old age, reports Dr. Kinsley in a new study to be at the Society of Neuroscience. The researchers said: “Pregnant women do undergo a phase of so-called baby brain, when they experience an apparent loss of function,” said Craig Kinsley, professor of neuroscience at the University of Richmond, Virginia. However, this is because their brains are being remodeled for motherhood to cope with the many new demands they will experience. ”The changes that kick in then could last for the rest of their lives, bolstering cognitive abilities and protecting them against degenerative diseases.”... continue reading

A new study out this week in PNAS may help us understand how aging affects the female brain differently than the male brain, especially in the 60-70 year olds. Here’s the bottom line: 60-70 year old males tend to have more gene changes in their brains and my become affected by brain aging sooner than females. They also found that aging of the male brain was characterized by global decreased catabolic and anabolic capacity, while increased immune activation was a prominent feature of aging in both sexes. Females tend to respond with greater inflammatory activation in the female brain.... continue reading

Girls are less likely to get diagnosed with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder–often until college or adulthood they suffer in silence. A new study out this week finds that girls with attention deficit disorder, ADD, many of whom often turn to using street drugs–DO NOT turn to street drugs as often when they get treatment for their ADD. The researchers found that the impact of ADD on the risk of substance abuse in the 114 girls they studied who had enrolled at the ages of 6 to 18 were significantly less likely to start using street drugs. The full article appears in the October Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.... continue reading

A new study out this week from the Netherlands shows that children do not start to learn by their mistakes or negative feedback until the age of puberty—12 or 13. Until then they only learn from positive feedback—and girls’ brain go into puberty an average of 12-18 months before boys.  But an area of all our brains that continues to respond strongly to positive feedback for our entire lives—the basal ganglia, located just outside the cerebral cortex—is very important in maintaining a happy relationship for both men and women. ... continue reading