Medical Reports: Men Versus Women

WSVN -- It's a familiar argument among couples.

Dinorah: "He tends to forget everything from dates to appointments to meetings to directions."

It's a battle that's been going on for years.

Jorge: "She forgets very small things. I'll ask her to get me something on the way home."

But why is there such a conflict over remembering things?

Dr. Eva Ritvo: "We're beginning to understand that men's brains and women's brains are wired up differently."

Jorge and Dinorah have been married almost a year.

They agreed to answer a few questions to see how their brains work.

First question: What do you remember about the first time you met?

Jorge: "I was walking into a meeting that she was in, in a bar and first time I saw her, I knew."

Dr. Eva Ritvo: "Men are better at processing visual, spacial sorts of information."

Dinorah: "I remember he was a smoker."

Dr. Eva Ritvo: "Women remember facts, faces, events."

Doctor Ritvo from the U.M. Miller School of Medicine says Jorge and Dinorah fit classic patterns. Jorge remembers where he was, Dinorah a detail about what Jorge was doing that day.

Second question: What do remember about your wedding day?

Jorge: "I saw her walking down in the beautiful white dress, and I remember her smile, and the way she looked."

Again, Jorge remembers what things looked like, his surroundings.

Dinorah?

Dinorah: "I would say the 'I do.'"

Dr. Eva Ritvo: "Women tend to process information very rapidly on both sides of their brain, so if we hear something, we feel the emotion with it at the same time."

And that's why women tend to remember conversations and specific things that were said. But for men, details of conversations are forgotten.

And last, we asked about dates.

Jorge: "My wife's birthday is May 6th"

Dinorah:"My birthday is May 10th."

Jorge: "You would have gotten your gift a couple days early, come on you like that."

And maybe even two gifts. Science still hasn't figured out why some men just forget key dates, but the Guerras have a way of solving this little problem.

Jorge: "Everytime that I have an event or a function, I always e-mail her and tell her, 'Put this on my calendar, just so I don't forget.'"

And it goes both ways.

Dinorah: "When I forget something, it tends to be that he gets me, and he remembers."

The Guerras understand their differences and even though it can be irritating at times, they've learned to deal with it.

Jorge: "At the end of the day, you learn to live it, and you love her with the good and the bad."

Doctors are still studying the differences in the way men and women hold on to memories and think this will even help them understand certain mental illnesses.