OK, so we find once again that the male and female brains have (slightly) different structures.

Men and women show differences in behaviour because their brains are physically distinct organs, new research suggests. Male and female brains appear to be constructed from markedly different genetic blueprints.

The differences in the circuitry that wires them up and the chemicals that transmit messages inside them are so great as to point to the conclusion that there is not just one kind of human brain, but two, according to recent neurological studies.

OK, now that’s part of our own theory around here. We go on to point out that simply because soeone is XX that doesn’t mean that they’ll have a female brain, or that someone XY will have male. It’s a probability that the former and latter will, not a certainty. But this research leads to a much larger point:

Professor Jeff Mogil from McGill University, in Montreal, Canada, who has demonstrated major differences in pain processing in males and females, puts it even more forcefully. He is astonished that so many researchers have failed to include female animals in their studies. “It’s scandalous,” he said. “Women are the most common pain sufferers, and yet our model for basic pain research is the male rat.”

Looks like a number of female rats are in for a torrid time of it but that’s something we really ought to do, don’t you think, whatever PETA says about it.