Gina Rippon facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gina Rippon
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Rippon in 2016
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| Born |
Georgina Mary Jane Rippon
1950 (age 74–75) |
| Nationality | British |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cognitive neuroimaging |
| Institutions | Aston University, Birmingham |
| Thesis | The orienting reflex in normal and in schizophrenic subjects (1982) |
Gina Rippon (born in 1950) is a British scientist who studies the brain. She is a retired professor of brain imaging at Aston University in Birmingham. In 2019, she wrote a book called Gendered Brain. This book explores how our life experiences and biology shape our brains.
Contents
Her Work
Brain Research
Gina Rippon earned her PhD in 1982. Her early research looked at how the brain works in people with schizophrenia. She uses special tools like electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). These tools help her study how brains process information.
Her work also includes studying conditions like Autism Spectrum Disorders. She has also researched developmental dyslexia, which affects reading.
Gendered Brain Book
In 2019, Professor Rippon released her book, Gendered Brain: The New Neuroscience that Shatters the Myth of the Female Brain.
What People Thought
Many people had good things to say about Rippon's book. Reviewers generally thought it was positive.
- Neuroscientist Lise Eliot wrote in Nature that the book successfully showed that the idea of a "gendered brain" is not true.
- However, other scientists, Rhonda Voskuhl and Sabra Klein, disagreed with Eliot. They argued that differences in behavior can come from both biology and culture. They also pointed out that animals show sex differences, and they are not affected by culture.
- Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen wrote in The Times that most scientists agree that both biology and culture shape brain differences. He felt Rippon focused too much on only culture.
- Rachel Cooke, writing for The Guardian, called the book a "brilliant debunking" of the idea of a "female brain."
Her Ideas
Brain Differences
Professor Rippon believes there is no single "male brain" or "female brain." Instead, she thinks "every brain is different from every other brain." She says each person's brain is a mix of things. These things come from their biology and their life experiences.
She also thinks it's important to challenge the idea that all gender differences come only from biology. She compares her findings to the idea of the Earth going around the sun. This was a big change in how people understood the world.
Rippon agrees that there are some sex differences in the brain. She says these are related to how bodies are involved in reproduction. But she stresses that the importance given to biology needs to be questioned.
Media Appearances
Gina Rippon has appeared on several TV and radio shows. She was on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. She also appeared on the BBC show No More Boys And Girls: Can Our Kids Go Gender Free? She has been interviewed on podcasts to discuss her book and respond to critics.
See also
In Spanish: Gina Rippon para niños
- Neuroscience of sex differences
- List of cognitive neuroscientists
- List of developmental psychologists
