Can you hear me now?

After exhausting analysis, hours and hours of mind-numbing fact finding, and formulating perplexing schematics, I may have discovered the breakthrough of the decade. Or I just bought a book at the mall that answered the question women are dying to know: "Why don't men listen?"

In the September 2005 issue of the journal Neuroimage, psychiatric researchers at the University of Sheffield reported that male and female voices activate distinct regions in the male brain. The scientists monitored the brain activity of 12 men as they listened to male and female voices. They found that in men, women's voices stimulate an area of the brain used for processing complex sounds like music. Male voices, on the other hand, activate a region of the brain used for producing imagery. This may suggest that, at least for men, the female voice is more complex and more difficult to hear and understand.

An earlier study in the July 2001 issue of Radiology also showed that men and women listen differently. In this study, researchers had 20 men and 20 women listening to a passage from a novel. While listening they underwent an MRI of the brain. A majority of the men showed exclusive activity on the left side of the brain, but a majority of women showed activity on both sides of the brain.

So as you just read there is scientific evidence to excuse the occasional male laspes in listening to their female partners especially when they are talking about shoes.

The suggested comeback if you are accused of not listening by your special lady: "Honey I try so hard to listen. It's just that my brain is incapable of doing what my heart desires." (Then go back to watching TV.)

Comments

  1. My ex girlfriend's shrill voice, especially when she was angry, didn't sound like music. And it wasn't complex either--it was just high pitched, much like a dog whistle, so being human I couldn't hear it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous3/04/2007

    Angel Jr. You may be on to something there..........

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ok Shife!

    OBVIOUSLY I have been missing out not visiting THIS blog! Now we have the excuse of a lifetime for not listening!

    I will NO LONGER blame my ADD!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. It may be harder to hear and process, but it's usually the smack to the head that gets my attention.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Does this study also cover that female phenomenon of saying one thing, but actually meaning something completely different?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous3/04/2007

    haha I'll have to tell Jeff that one (hmmm or perhaps keep it to myself since I want him to listen!!) funny, i swear i just had (2 hrs ago) an entire conversation with myself -

    I swore Jeff was there and was listening but when I was done - he says something to the effect of...could you run that by me again?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey Shife---have you watched The Black Donnellys yet? Mondays after Heros? I enjoyed it. Has a Sopranos feel, but less violent and Irish.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Grilltech tried to claim, he couldn't hear me, until the Pepsi incident. Now he pays close attention when I say things, like "catch".

    ReplyDelete
  9. Shifey, dear, you needed a book to figure that information out?

    Where have you been??

    Men, also, cannot hear babies.
    Women complain (and I'm sure I will when my time comes) that men don't get up with the baby at night.
    It's because it's been medically proven that they do not hear the child crying. They sleep right through it. Even "light sleepers."

    Where-as women are so in-tune with the child, possibly due in large part to the nine-month gestation and mother's instinct, that they can hear the baby MOVE in their crib.

    ReplyDelete
  10. i guess that's why god invented ipods. so men like me don't have to listen to our spouses for eternity.

    or maybe god just invented ipods for the money???

    ReplyDelete
  11. HAHA what a great post shife! I always tell Kristen that us men have selective hearing and she should get use to that, now I have something else to use for my argument thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  12. old news shife. sorry buddy. oh, and ruby, if by god you mean steve jobs, then you're right.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hmmm... I'm guessing all the researchers were men and this was devised as their excuse why they don't listen to their wives/sisters/girlfriends/mothers etc. They thought they could get away with this behavior now that their study was published--the women in their lives would have to believe them now!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment