Stereotypes of behaviour exist for girls and boys at school, for their choice of subjects and their career choices. Close scrutiny shows many subtle differences in the structure and function of male and female brains. Small differences in cognitive function test scores, for example spatial and verbal function, also exist. Is this ‘nature’, due to intrinsic sex differences? Or does ‘nurture’ – being treated differently or subjected to different expectations – lead to the differences in brain function? Are the cognitive differences relevant to academic success in different subjects? Why does the superiority of female performance at school contrast so starkly with the superior performance of males (in some subjects) at the most selective universities?

Jane Mellanby’s current research centres on learning problems in children, particularly under-achievement in secondary school. She has always been interested in the brain. Based at the Department of Experimental Psychology in the University of Oxford and collaborating with researchers locally, abroad and across disciplines, she trained initially as a biochemist, doing her D Phil under Sir Hans Krebs. Combining then the fields of neurochemistry and neurophysiology, she worked on neurotoxins, subsequently developing a model of epilepsy in the rat, using tetanus toxin, to investigate the relationship between physiological changes and deficits in learning and memory. The combination of this neuroscientific perspective and bringing up four children meant that human learning and academic achievement was a natural progression.

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