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lfrontino's picture

Brain Variations

 Going back to Tuesday's class, I was especially interested in the idea that there is no actual human brain. Thinking about it, this idea actually makes perfect sense. Because there is so much variation amongst each of our brains, there can be no actual brain prototype which stipulates the characteristics of a human brain. Emily Dickinson's idea of the brain as encompassing all is supported by the fact that there is so much variation between individual human brains.

I also found the conversation about differences in male vs. female brains to be particularly intriguing. It is interesting that we are always taught of differences between males and females as strictly on a population-scale basis, one which cannot possibly account for all men and women, and which is thus still a stereotype. It puts an entirely new perspective on gender for me. What does it actually mean to be a male or a female if no biological or neurological traits can indefinitely be placed with one sex over the other. How is it possible to group genders into only two categories? 

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