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.