It's just a brain, stupid!

London: The big debate about who is smarter, man or woman, has now been laid to rest. There is nothing like a boy's or a girl's brain, and no scientific evidence to prove that they are wired differently, according to an expert.

"'Men are from Mars and women are from Venus' theory has no scientific grounding. Our brains are changed by the roles society forces us to play," said neuroscience expert Gina Rippon, a professor at the Ashton University in Birmingham, Britain.

Stereotypes such as women's supposed inability to read maps or the thought that men are bad at multitasking have no links to science, Rippon added.

She said men and women are only dissimilar because the world we live in encourages gender role-playing.

"You cannot pick up a brain and say 'that's a girl's brain, or that's a boy's brain' in the same way you can with the skeleton. They look the same," she was quoted as saying in a Daily Mail report.

The fact that boys and girls are given different toys based on their sex is what creates gender differences within the brain, Rippon said.

By playing with a Barbie doll rather than a superhero, a girl's brain is programmed to become more feminine.

More emphasis should be placed on the fact that the brain is, in fact, a muscle and can, therefore, be exercised according to what it is required to do, Rippon concluded.