On the female brain

What neuroscience is uncovering about hormones, emotion, and the brain's remarkable capacity for change

Welcome to The Studio Edit: your weekly curated, not calculated, curiosity feed.

Lately I’ve been thinking about the female brain. Not in the “men are from Mars, women are from Venus” sense - but in the quieter, more everyday sense of how much I change. One week I’m calm and clear; the next I feel like I’ve been possessed by evil itself. “I’m just being hormonal,” I’d tell myself, but then I stumbled across a handful of articles that made me realise something: maybe it’s not just hormones messing things up. Maybe it’s the brain doing its job.

🩸 Hormonal, Not Hysterical

The New Scientist recently ran a piece on what they’re calling “women’s neuroscience,” pointing to shifts in brain-wave activity in the days before a period. In that pre-menstrual week, alpha-wave balance apparently dips, which could explain why emotional regulation feels harder.

Wait: let me try to explain this…alpha waves are the brain’s built-in “calm” frequency. When they dip or wobble, we feel jumpier, more reactive…