Science / Medicine : Size of Brain Segment Linked to Verbal Fluency

An area of the brain that is thought to be the source of the ability to speak fluently is larger in women than in men and is largest in those women with the greatest verbal fluency, UCLA researchers reported last week. The observation could provide at least partial confirmation for the previously recognized fact that women have greater verbal facility than men, and could explain why some women are more facile than others, said psychiatrist Melissa Hines.

Hines used sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging to study the size of the splenium--a segment of the corpus callosum that links the two halves of the brain--in 28 women who were also given tests to measure their ability to communicate verbally. The corpus callosum has previously been found to be larger in women than in men.

Hines and her colleagues reported in the February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience that the women who scored best on tests of verbal fluency had the largest spleniums.