Louann Brizendine's “The Male Brain” is an engaging book about a fairly simple realization: men and women differ in more than just what is below the belt.
Hormones shape our bodies, our behavior, and, yes, our brains too.
Brizendine guides readers through male life from childhood to old age and describes how testosterone, oxytocin, and other hormones play a role along the way. The whole thing is deliberately provocative and refreshingly undogmatic.
I particularly like her image of testosterone as Zeus.
The boss of the male hormonal Olympus. Responsible for sexuality, competition, drive, and the desire to somehow assert oneself in the world.
Of course, this is not a biochemical definition.
But you immediately understand what is meant.
Men more vertically, women more horizontally
It becomes particularly interesting when we look at the brain's wiring.
A large connectome study of 949 young people found in 2014 that, on average, the male brain had stronger connections within each hemisphere, whereas the female brain had stronger connections between the two hemispheres.[1]
For simplicity's sake, I call this:
Men more vertically. Women more horizontally.
This is an image, not an anatomical technical term. And of course, you cannot infer from it how any particular man or any particular woman thinks.
But the fundamental finding is interesting.
And the topic is by no means settled. In 2024, a Stanford group studied the functional organization of the brain using an AI model on three independent datasets. The researchers found reproducible differences between male and female brains, particularly in networks around the Default Mode Network, striatum, and limbic system.[2]
So the book is now somewhat older.
The basic idea is not.
Zeus is more complicated than expected, however
Research on testosterone has moved on by now, too.
The simple notion that “more testosterone = a more aggressive man” does not hold up.
In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 103 men, testosterone did not simply increase aggression. Rather, it amplified the response to provocation and competition.[3]
I find that more interesting.
Testosterone does not automatically turn a person into a caveman. It seems instead to give greater weight to certain preexisting social situations and behaviors.
So Zeus does not simply press the AGGRESSIVE button.
It intervenes.
And then along comes the cuddle hormone
The most striking counterpoint is oxytocin.
Oxytocin is often called the cuddle hormone because it plays an important role in bonding and social behavior.
And this is where things become almost absurd.
In 2021, researchers administered oxytocin as a nasal spray to forensic psychiatric patients with severe psychopathy. The participants came from five maximum-security forensic facilities.
Not exactly a harmless study group.
After a single dose, the previously observed association between psychopathy and reactive dominance behavior was no longer detectable under oxytocin in the experiment.[4]
In another randomized study involving adolescents with pronounced callous-unemotional traits, oxytocin increased measured empathy.[5]
I find that remarkable.
We like to talk about character, personality, morality, and free will.
And then someone sprays a few molecules into a nose and suddenly measurable social behavior changes.
We are not just mind.
We are biology too.
And now, of course: Pine Pollen
And that brings us to Pine Pollen.
Already 1971 three scientists published a short paper with the appealing title:
Testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione in the pollen of Scotch pine.
They actually found the following in the pollen of Scots pine Pinus sylvestris:
Testosterone.
Epitestosterone.
Androstenedione.[6]
This is not Pine Pollen advertising from the internet.
The study exists.
It is important to note, however, that Pinus sylvestris was studied. And the detection of a hormone in a plant naturally does not yet mean that consuming this plant increases a person’s testosterone level.
We simply do not know. Anyone who wants to explore this exact question in greater depth can find the article “Does Pine Pollen Really Contain Testosterone?” here.
But it really is anything but uninteresting.
When hormones really do reach so deeply into the brain, sexuality, motivation, and social behavior—and when pine pollen happens to contain molecules that we know from our own steroid hormone system—I find it quite obvious to take a closer look at this plant.
That is why I think Pine Pollen is a good idea.
Not as a testosterone shot from the forest.
Not as a miracle cure.
Rather, as an unusual plant-based food where modern biochemistry, thousands of years of use, and a whole host of unanswered questions come together.
And that is exactly where it gets interesting.
Read more: Why plant-based testosterone?
Sources and studies
Book
Louann Brizendine: The Male Brain. Why Men Are Different from Women. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 2010.
[1] Brain connectivity
Ingalhalikar M. et al.: Sex differences in the structural connectome of the human brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2014;111(2):823–828. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1316909110. PubMed
[2] Functional differences, 2024
Ryali S. et al.: Deep learning models reveal replicable, generalizable, and behaviorally relevant sex differences in human functional brain organization. PNAS, 2024;121(9):e2310012121. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2310012121. PubMed
[3] Testosterone and provocation
Wagels L. et al.: Exogenous Testosterone Enhances the Reactivity to Social Provocation in Males. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 2018;12:37. DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00037. PubMed
[4] Oxytocin in severe psychopathy
Rijnders R.J.P. et al.: Sniffing submissiveness? Oxytocin administration in severe psychopathy. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2021;131:105330. DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105330. DOI
[5] Oxytocin and empathy
Fragkaki I., Cima M.: The effect of oxytocin administration on empathy and emotion recognition in residential youth: A randomized, within-subjects trial. Hormones and Behavior, 2019;114:104561. DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.104561. PubMed
[6] Steroid hormones in pine pollen
Šaden-Krehula M., Tajić M., Kolbah D.: Testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione in the pollen of Scotch pine P. silvestris L. Experientia, 1971;27(1):108–109. DOI: 10.1007/BF02137770. PubMed