In the short time that I've been blogging, I have come to the conclusion that bad blogging days must be related to problems with the white matter, not with the gray matter. For instance, Tig had problems posting because of his malfunctioning DSL.
In one recent study, Dr. Bartzokis likened gray matter,* which covers the brain, to computers scattered across the Internet. He compared the white matter underneath to the cables that connect them. And he suggested that the growth of the white matter improved the brain's ability to process information much as high-speed Internet connections improve computer communicate.On the other hand, sometimes we have all kinds of ideas rumbling around in our heads, but it's just hard to connect them. Now, from what I've read, women seem to be better at connecting than men, since we use more of our white matter in our thought processes.* * [Since gray matter decreases over the years, and white matter continues to increase until the late 40's, it seems that women have caught on more quickly to the need to utilize their white matter.] Anyway, I have concluded that perhaps there are some white matter problems when I'm having problems connecting my thoughts into a post.
But then, it's more complicated than that, since some people use their right brains more, and some their left, the right generally being the more creative side. So sometimes it's just that the right and left brains are having a little trouble communicating:
"Hey! Right Brain! Wake up. We've got to write [another post]."
"Give it a rest, will you?"
"Come on, you've got no reason to be so grumpy."
"Reason? What's that?"
"You are so difficult to deal with sometimes."
"No, I'm not." "Yes you are. I can never get you to do what I want." "That's because you're always trying to control me."
"But I need an idea. Now! You know I can't write without you."
"You interrupted a wonderful daydream."
I think I hear another chorus of "Look What [She's] Done to My Brain Blog."
Definition: The portions of the brain and spinal cord which are gray and composed of the main bodies of neurons (called cytons). This is in contrast to white matter, which is the portions that are white and composed of the axons and dendrites of neurons.
Brain scans of 70 men, ages 19 to 76 confirms that the brain's gray matter, the cell bodies of nerve cells, declines steadily from adolescence. But surprisingly, the white matter, the fatty material that insulates the long extending branches of the nerve cells and makes nerve signals move faster, in the frontal parts of the brain appears to grow at least until the late 40's, before beginning to decline. The growth of white matter may improve the brain's ability to process information. The study, from the Department of Veterans Affairs, appears in the May issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry.
Overall size aside, some evidence suggests that female brains are relatively more endowed with gray matter - the prized neurons thought to do the bulk of the brain's thinking - while men's brains are packed with more white matter, the tissue between neurons.Posted by Moona at January 25, 2005 05:21 AM | TrackBackTo further complicate the portrait of cerebral diversity, new brain imaging studies from the University of California, Irvine, suggest that men and women with equal I.Q. scores use different proportions of their gray and white matter when solving problems like those on intelligence tests.
Men, they said, appear to devote 6.5 times as much of their gray matter to intelligence-related tasks as do women, while women rely far more heavily on white matter to pull them through a ponder.