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While culturally women may consider men to be simple creatures, nothing could be further from the truth.

“The unique brain structures of men create a male reality, fundamentally different from the female one,” said Dr Louann Brizendine, a neuropsychiatrist and professor of clinical psychiatry.

“Consequently, scientists have learned that men use their brains in extremely complex and different ways to women,” Dr Brizendine added.

‘I was only looking!’

It can be really irritating to caught your partner salivating at a curvaceous 20-something. But like it or not, men really can’t help looking at other women.

The lust center in the male brain automatically directs men to visually take in the details of attractive females.

To your partner’s brain, the buxom woman was like a colourful hummingbird.

She flew into his line of vision, caught his attention for a few seconds, then flew off, out of his mind.

They don’t think it’s a big deal and they can’t understand why women find it so threatening – until the tables are turned.

Once men start to see a partner as The One, researchers have found that fear of loss or rejection can trigger a release of the mating hormones, testosterone and vasopressin, that drive his possessive mating instincts wild.

So, your partner couldn’t have stopped his eyes from looking at her breasts even if he’d tried – but he could learn to be more discreet.

Why men fall asleep after sex

It is hardly romantic when you just share a night of passion with your partner and within minutes, he’s snoring away.

The oxytocin is to blame for men’s post-coital narcolepsy. so don’t think he doesn’t care enough to stay awake.

Oxytocin promotes pleasurable, warm and safe feelings during and afer sex.

In the female brain, a combination of oxytocin and dopamine – an energizing, feel-good hormone – released after orgasm makes her want to cuddle and chat.

Why men don’t understand women

Men accuse women of being too emotional and women accuse men of not being being too caring enough.

The emotional processing in the male and female brain is not the same.

Research suggests that our brains have two emotional systems that work simultaneously: system or MNS (which allows us to emotionally empathise with people); and the parietal junction system or TPJ (which fires the brain’s analyse-and-fix-it circuits to look for solutions to emotional problems – cognitive empathy).

Males use the latter far more. This prevents their thought processes from being clouded by emotions, strengthening their ability to find practical solutions, but at times, it can make them appear to be uncaring.

Male or female, when we see an emotion on someone else’s face, our MNS (emotional empathy system) activates. But, for reasons scientists don’t understand, the female brain stays in the sympathetic MNS longer, while the male brain, not built to wallow in anguish, switches to the practical mode.

Why older men can appeal to younger women

As he heads into his 50s and 60s, changing hormone levels usher in a kinder, gentler man. Older man is little more patient and tolerant than his younger counterpart.

His mature male brain starts to see the world more as it was when he was a boy, before the hormonal changes at puberty stimulated his circuits for anger and defence. And because he has less of the ‘aggressive’ testosterone, his ‘cuddle hormone’ oxytocin is able to have more of a calming effect on his brain.

The ‘daddy’ brain

Scientists discovered that a man’s brain also goes through substantial changes as his mate’s pregnancy progresses. Men do have physical and hormonal shifts during these times.

Researchers at Harvard University found that two major hormonal changes occur in fathers-to-be: testosterone (the aggressive ‘male’ hormone) decreases and prolactin (which stimulates paternal feelings and decreases sex drive) surges.

Scientists believe men may be responding to the airborne chemicals (pheromones) of pregnancy emanating from the mother-to-be’s skin and sweat glands – these hormones prime him for paternal behaviour.

By the time children are born, men are better at hearing and emotionally responding to crying babies than non-dads, because of the hormone shift. On average, a man’s testosterone and prolactin levels will begin to level when the baby is six weeks old, returning to pre-fatherhood levels by the time the baby walks.

The ‘charmer’

‘You’re so beautiful you should be a model’ and ‘I’ve never met a woman like you before’ may be cliches, but, according to studies, deception is as an important part of men’s mating strategy for short-term partners.

Researchers found that three out of four men are willing to lie or ‘modify the truth’ to persuade women to have sex with them.

They also discovered the things dating men lie about are the same all over the world. Men exaggerate their wealth, status and business and social connections.

When it comes to verbal deception, researchers have found that men are biologically more comfortable with it than women.

They measured the vocal strain of men and women telling lies to the opposite sex and found that the men showed much less strain while they lied – which presumably means it comes more easily to them.