(WIRED) 5 October 2007:

It’s one of the basic points of Simon Baron Cohen’s research, that the male brain type is better at spatial skills than the female brain type. Indeed, it’s actually one of the definitions.

New research seems to show that this specific difference might not be as hard wired as previously thought. Just a few hours of women playing a computer game improves the womens’ spatial skills so much that they catch up with the men. This then reopens the question of whether certain of the skills that are seen as male or female (or associated with that brain type) are in fact genetically or culturally determined.

(NEW YORK TIMES) 8 August 2005:

Males produce more prenatal testosterone than females do, but levels vary even among members of the same sex. Simon Baron Cohen says that “ it may not be your sex per se that determines what kind of brain you have, but your prenatal hormone levels. From there it’s a short leap to the intriguing idea that a male can have a typically female brain (if his testosterone levels are low), while a female can have a typically male brain (if her testosterone levels are high). That notion fits with the evidence that girls born with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, who for genetic reasons produce too much testosterone, are more likely to exhibit ”tomboy” behavior than girls with more ordinary hormone levels.”

According to the “extreme male brain” theory of autism, people with autism exhibit an extreme of the male brain profile. These people have high drive to systemize and a low drive to empathize.