Nigerian neuroscientist records break-through in brain function

A Nigeria Neuroscientist, Prof. Philip Njemanze, has discovered that male mice process colour with its left brain while the female process with its right brain.

The discovery is a novel in Neuroscience and first appeared in the July 2017 edition of the authoritative American PLOS One journal released.

Daily Times gathered on Thursday, via PLOS ONE online site, the study was spear-headed by Njemanze and three leading American Institutes in works funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States and supported by a leading Germany pharmaceutical firm.

The study was entitled; Gender differences in cerebral metabolism for colour processing in mice: A PET/MRI study.

The study has been verified by three leading American Institutes while the works was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States.

Njemanze said that the following equipment: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) with radioisotope methods were used to look at the blood flow in the animals.

Njemanze who is the Chairman, International Institutes of Advanced Research and Training, and Chidicon Medical Centre Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.

The journal noted that Njemanze anchored his recent study on an earlier study in humans using non-invasive transcranial Doppler ultrasound in humans, men process information (general intelligence, colours and faces) with their right brain, while the women process with their left.

“So our next effort was on how to ascertain if the finding in human brain function was just a human thing, a neurobiological thing that is linked to the genes and does it equally extend to the animals.

“We were equally bordered on whether it was a fundamental thing on the functionality of the brain at all levels starting from the very small animals to humans’

“The big and unexpected discovery made was that male mice process colour with their left brain, while the female process colour with their right brain.

“This was a direct opposite of what we saw in humans and it is a major development which offers an evolutionary perspective, showing that as you move from small animals to humans, some changes occur in the brain functional architecture’’.

Apart from the importance of the discovery to neuroscience, it as well shows that the genders were complementary; men complementing women, and women complementing men is based on neurobiology of the brain.

According to the researcher, the society should see gender not from cultural or religious perspective, but from the point of view of science, which shows it as genetically imprinted neurobiology.

“It must be clear to us that we have different ways of processing information in men and women and as such learning process differs for both sexes.

The finding could revolutionalize the educational sector as those impacting knowledge will understand better ways to handle challenges for both sex while teaching.The study is equally a boost to understanding the composition of family unit which comprise of a man and a woman’’

Njemanze added that, “this neurobiology provides complementarity and thus maximizes the capabilities of the right brain in a man and left brain in a woman.’’

The journal noted that with the latest finding, more comprehensive information is now available to understand the brain control systems in human beings and animals.

It was further gathered that since 10 years now the centre has done a lot of studies on how the brain controls general intelligence.

The centre first discovered that the right brain is responsible for processing intelligence in men, while the left is responsible in women.

Daily Times reports that the biggest Radio-Pharmacy Institute in Europe; Hemholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, at University of Leipzig Germany collaborated with Njemanze in the study.

“International Institutes of Advanced Research and Training, Chidicon Medical Center, Owerri, Imo State developed MoU with Prof. Peter Brust, the Director at Hemholtz-Zentrum in Leipzig and jointly headed the effort.

Other major collaborators were the PhD student Mathias Kranz, and the engineer Jans Hauser, and image processing experts Mario Amend and Hans Wehrl, from the Werner Siemens Imaging Center and Radiopharmacy in Tübingen, Germany.