March is Brain Awareness Month, so, to mark the occasion, we’re happy to offer readers a special advanced reading edition of The Male Brain by Louann Brizendine, M.D. Dr. Brizendine is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Female Brain.

Now Louann Brizendine is turning her attention to the inner workings of men and boys, explaining the latest scientific developments in male psychology and neurology. This book finally does away with stereotypes and, through impeccable research and cutting-edge scientific knowledge, reveals the male brain.

For a chance to win a free copy of The Male Brain, tell us (in one paragraph or less) what you’re doing to keep your brain sharp. Click here to view the contest rules.

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Hands-on Time: 5 MINUTES

Hands-off Time: TIME TO PREHEAT OVEN PLUS 40 TO 45 MINUTES PLUS

15 MINUTES TO COOL

When coring the pears, make sure you also remove the fibrous portion along the line of the stem. Then, before serving, make sure to let the pears cool until they are just warm or room temperature. The flavor and texture is much richer once they’ve cooled. In fact, these pears are perfect for a dinner party or an event where food may be sitting out for a bit; the flavor actually gets better as they rest. Keep in mind the cooking time may vary depending on the variety of pear you use. Some are considerably firmer than others, so if the pears don’t seem cooked enough after the suggested cooking time below, continue roasting them until they’re very tender. It could take up to an additional half-hour if you get a really firm variety.

• Butter-flavored cooking spray

• 2 firm pears (about 6 ounces each), rinsed

• 2 teaspoons light butter, melted (stick, not tub; I used Challenge Light)

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar, not packed

• 2 pinches cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8 × 8-inch baking dish with parchment. Lightly mist the parchment with spray. Crinkle a piece of foil to form a log about 12 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 1 inch in diameter. Set the log in the center of the baking dish. Cut the pears in half lengthwise. Carefully scoop out the cores and remove the stems. Place the halves on the prepared baking sheet so the tips rest on the log (this is to ensure the pears lay flat so the glaze doesn’t drip out during baking). Drizzle the butter evenly over the pears. Then sprinkle the brown sugar, followed by the cinnamon, evenly over the top. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until very tender.

Allow the pears to cool until they’re just warm or room temperature, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately.

Makes 2 servings. Each (1 pear; 2 halves) serving has: 155 calories, <1 g protein, 37 g carbohydrates, 2 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 6 g fiber, 36 mg sodium

While humans and animals have differences in their mating strategies, scientists have observed some curious similarities. One of the most colorful examples of animal tactics is provided by the side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana).  Conveniently, the males come with three different colored throats that match their mating-styles. Males with orange throats use the alpha-male harem strategy. They guard a group of females and mate with all of them. The males with yellow throats are called “sneakers” because they slip into the harem of the orange throat and mate with his females whenever they can get away with it. The males with brilliant blue throats – my personal favorites — use the one-and-only-strategy. They mate with one female and guard her 24-7. From a biological perspective, the approaches of the orange-throated harem leader, the yellow-throated sneaker and the blue-throated one-female type are all successful mating strategies for lizards and for human males too. I affectionately call my husband a “blue-throat.”

THE HORMONE OF MONOGAMY

So, women may be anxiously asking, “How can I pick a blue-throat?”  We have no sure-fire answer yet on what makes for a monogamous human male mate, but the research on furry little mammals called voles might provide some clues. Scientists have found that male prairie voles are monogamous and share equally in parenting their offspring. But their cousin — the montane vole— is strictly promiscuous, seeks sexual variety, and specializes in one-night stands that last less than a minute. The difference between the mating strategies of these vole cousins originates in the brain. When the prairie vole finds his partner, he mates with her over and over in a 24-hour sexual marathon. This sexual activity changes his brain forever. An area of his brain called the AH — the anterior hypothalamus– memorizes his partner’s smell and touch, leading him to aggressively reject all other females.   This blissful day in the new vole couple’s relationship is not only unforgettable, but biologically necessary. Memorizing her and thus merging the so-called love and lust circuits in his brain will initiate a lifelong preference for this one female.

During sex, both prairie and montane voles release vasopressin and dopamine, but only the prairie vole has the type of vasopressin receptors in his brain needed to make him monogamous.  And when scientists experimentally blocked these monogamy-inducing vasopressin receptors in the prairie voles’ brains, they didn’t bond with their sexual partners.  The love and lust circuits in their brains couldn’t merge.  What makes the difference between the vasopressin receptors in the prairie vole brain and the montane vole brain is their differing genes. The monogamous vole’s vasopressin receptor gene is a longer version and the promiscuous vole’s is a shorter version. When scientists inserted the long version of the gene into the promiscuous montane vole, he too became monogamous.

Although the brain biology in men may turn out to be more complicated than it is in voles, humans have this vasopressin receptor gene too.  Some men have the long version while others have the short one. A study in Sweden found that men with the long version of the vasopressin receptor gene were twice as likely to leave bachelorhood behind and commit to one woman for life.   A ‘good man’ just became easier to find.

The best investment strategy I know is so counterintuitive, so shockingly upside down, such a crazy way of thinking about investing that hardly anyone who uses it wants to even try to explain it. It’s not at all hard to do, but it is hard to explain. It just sounds so . . . impossible. But smart investors do it all the time and, man, does it work! I mean it really works. It’s an “I can do whatever I want the rest of my life” kind of works. It works so well, it’s the secret to the investing success of the best and richest investors in the world. Seriously.

I know that sounds like hype, but honestly it’s impossible to overstate the effectiveness of this strategy. It really is the basis of the biggest fortunes in the world, including those of quite a number of Forbes’s World’s Billionaires list. For example, #3 is Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican telecom entrepreneur who is worth $35 billion and is currently buying into cheap media, energy, and retail assets, including the New York Times, using this strategy. Lakshmi Mittal, #8, of India, created a $19 billion fortune and now runs the world’s largest steel company, ArcelorMittal. He built ArcelorMittal using this strategy in Eastern Europe in the 1990s after the Berlin Wall came down. Number 15 is Bernard Arnault of France, who built a $16 billion fortune by acquiring Christian Dior with this strategy.

Number 16 on the World’s Billionaires list is Li Ka-shing of  China, who made $16 billion acquiring energy, banking, and utility companies with this strategy. Charles Koch and David Koch are ranked #19 with $14 billion each, which they got by using this strategy to build Koch Industries—one of the largest, privately held corporations in the United States. Michael Otto of Germany is ranked #23 and is using this strategy to take advantage of weak markets in the United States to buy up shopping centers in America. Don Bren is #26. He used it to become the sole owner of the Irvine Company and bank $12 billion. The Irvine Company is one of the largest construction companies in California and the developer of about a fifth of Orange County.

The list of billionaires who used this strategy to become mega-wealthy goes on and on but wouldn’t be complete without mentioning that the world’s second wealthiest man, Warren Buffett (worth $37 billion), the world’s best investor, used this strategy of investing to build his immense fortune and to increase his ownership and compounded return in companies like American Express, Washington Post, GEICO, and Coca-Cola.

This strategy is also the basis of thousands of little fortunes, including mine. In fact, as any of the billionaires I mentioned above would agree, it’s much easier to use the strategy if you are a small investor. Being a big investor is actually a huge disadvantage in using this strategy. Mr. Buffett once said, “Anyone who says that size does not hurt investment performance is selling. The highest rates of return I’ve ever achieved were in the 1950s. I killed the Dow. You ought to see the numbers. But I was investing peanuts then. It’s a huge structural advantage not to have a lot of money.”*
I used this strategy to build my wealth by buying shares of bioscience, software, and other private companies. And soon, if you pay attention and are willing to do a bit of fun work, you’ll discover that this incredible strategy can be the basis of your fortune, too.

STOCKPILING

I call this amazing strategy “stockpiling” . . . as in “stash,” “accumulate,” and “collect.” It means exactly as it sounds—stockpiling, as in piling up stocks. Not just any stock at any price, though. The essence of stockpiling is to buy stock in a business you’d be excited to own all of, then hope the price goes down so you can “stash,” “accumulate,” and “collect” as much as you can afford at as low a price as possible. Sounds strange, I know. But again, all of the billionaires I listed above and many more on Forbes’s World’s Billionaires list are stockpilers of businesses. (Note: This list might have changed by the time you read this but not the stories behind these guys’ wealth-building strategies.)

Buy a Business, Not a Stock

“Buy a Business, Not a Stock” was a chapter title in my first book. It’s such a key way of thinking that I can’t reiterate it enough: You must stop thinking that stock investing is any different from buying a business. When you buy a business you’re buying shares of the business. If you buy some percentage of the total shares, you become a part owner. Buy all the shares and you own the whole business. There is no difference between that process and buying public stock in a business. As long as you treat owning shares of public stocks as different from owning a piece of a business, you will fail to understand and execute the stockpiling strategy. A typical stock investor is unhappy when the price of his stock goes down, because he has no understanding of the true value of the business that stock represents. But that’s because typical stock investors are not investors at all. They don’t understand stockpiling, so they inadvertently have become speculators and outright gamblers.

The unfortunate truth is that the financial services industry has conned many millions of people into their game of stock speculation via mutual funds. I’ll have a lot more on that in the next chapter. For now, let’s just remember that for this book and for the rest of your investing career, you must think of stocks as shares of a business, and yourself as the owner of that business. So if you buy just ten shares of Coca-Cola, you’re a part owner of Coke—not a stock investor in Coke. Got that? When you begin to think like this, you’re joining some truly great investors like Buffett, and you’re on the first step toward becoming a solid stockpiler of stocks, er, businesses.

The top date-breaker men reported came down to one thing: dominant behavior. Many men basically said the date failed because they’d rather hire her than date her. They may respect her intelligence and admire her capabilities, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re attracted to her. They weren’t saying they wanted someone simple, needy, or uncomplicated, but they didn’t want to feel tense, belittled, or neglected in their personal relationships.

The term “boss” here reflects men’s attitudes that certain women seem argumentative, competitive, controlling, not feminine, too independent, not nurturing, or some combination of the above. In other words, some women give off a “masculine” vibe. Of course, women don’t use the same terminology to describe this behavior. Instead, women might rightfully identify themselves as persuasive, capable, street- smart, organized, modern, confident, or forthright. You say “potato”; he says “potahto.”

This is a tough spot for contemporary women, particularly those who have successful careers. It has roots in behavioral science: in the end, men and women are all a lot like Pavlov’s dog. We behave according to the ways we’re rewarded. If Pavlov’s dog learned that he got a doggie treat every time he barked, then he’d eventually start barking a lot. In the workplace, women (like men) are rewarded with promotions, bonuses, praise, and respect for taking charge and being capable. As women have risen up the corporate ladder, they have adopted many traditionally male characteristics to succeed, whether they work in finance, law, retail sales, or party planning. It’s not easy to just switch off this alpha personality after you leave the office. But that comes at a cost.

One man told me that most women he meets today would prefer he “admire their accomplishments rather than their butts.” Welcome to Dating 101. If you’d take professional respect over lust, you might have just lost that second date. I call these Boss Ladies part of “The Cinderella Generation”: they broke the glass ceiling but broke their glass slipper along with it. Of course it’s unfair. Luckily I don’t believe your only choice is between a big promotion and a date with a guy you’re crazy about. Landing both can be as simple as gaining awareness of the issues and making a few easy adjustments.

While it’s hard to transition from taking charge, focusing on the bottom line, and organizing schedules, it’s imperative to grasp that men say the “image” of the woman they want at 8:00 PM isn’t the same image of the woman they want at 8:00 AM. He’s not buying red roses for his fabulous female colleague with whom he works side by side during the day— the one with whom he debates a client strategy and who he thinks would do a damn good job running the company. He says he’s not intimidated by her (though perhaps he is). He really does respect her. Many men just don’t picture coming home to her (or, more precisely, the stereo type of her) after a long day. In fact, as far as professions go, 44 percent of the men I polled in a separate online survey responded that their first- choice profession for a woman they’d like to marry is “schoolteacher.” And this poll was conducted in 2008, not 1950!

Throughout my interviews, most men clearly told me they wanted an intelligent, accomplished woman with whom they could share stimulating conversation. It wasn’t really her job title that tipped the scale as they debated calling her back, but whether or not she seemed to have a soft demeanor— as far as they could tell during a one- or two-hour first date. This time frame is crucial because ultimately the issue is not what you are or aren’t at your core, but rather that trivial comments or actions are screening you out before he can really get to know and appreciate you.

Meditation is the most powerful tool I have found to become more intuitively attuned. It allows us to cross over boundaries we may not know existed until we’ve moved beyond them. The reason many of you may not realize you’re intuitive is that you have become conditioned to hearing only your mind. The intensity of your thoughts overrides everything else. Meditation gives you more options. Even if you have never thought of yourself as the “type” or have tried and been unsuccessful, when properly guided everyone can meditate.

I teach my patients to practice the same simple technique my teacher taught me. First, sit on a comfortable cushion, back upright, legs crossed. If sitting on a cushion is too uncomfortable, sit on a chair, making sure to keep your back straight. If you lie down it’s too easy to fall asleep. With the palms of your hands resting together in the traditional prayer position, begin by making a reverential bow in honor of yourself and your spiritual source. Then, most important, start to breathe. Paying attention only to the rhythm of your in-breath and out-breath, notice the nuances of each inhalation and exhalation as the flow of air passes through your lungs and out past your nostrils and mouth. If thoughts come—and they will—note them but try not to get involved in them, and always return to the breath. In Yogic thought, this is the prana, our vital energy, the essence of life. Concentrating on it singly leads to the stillness as nothing else can.

You may be like me. I’ve always rebelled against regimentation of any kind. If someone tells me one way of doing something, I’m sure to do the opposite. I’m not saying that this is a commendable quality, but it’s how I often feel. Respecting this about myself, I’ve chosen a method of meditating that suits my character. It’s more free flowing, instinctual, without a lot of rules. But meditation is extremely personal. There are many excellent methods—including Zen, Vipassanna, Yoga, transcendental meditation—some more structured than others. It may help to experiment with a few. In the final analysis, how or where you meditate is less important than the outcome of the practice.

I know of a blackjack dealer in Reno who uses meditation to center himself amidst the chaos and confusion of the gambling casino. Inspired by the Hindu tradition, he’s renamed himself Hanuman after the monkey god, recognized for being the devoted servant of Rama. During his breaks, he sits cross-legged beneath the glare of the bright lights, eyes closed, surrounded by the din of slot machines and people shouting. There he meditates as peacefully as he might on a mountain in Tibet. His practice has taught him to cope with external distractions and keeps him focused and astute.

To be able to meditate, no matter what the physical conditions, you must begin slowly. Meditation requires loyalty and perseverance. Initially, you can limit yourself to five minutes a day. Once you become more accustomed to sitting, gradually build up to twenty minutes over the next few weeks or months. You may stay at that level for a while. When you’re ready, increase to a full hour. But don’t worry if your mind is busy. It takes practice to sense the stillness, so try to be patient. If at first nothing much seems to be happening, you’re not doing anything wrong. There’s no rush. Just keep your attention focused on the breath as much as possible. Be gentle with yourself. Change takes time.

Intuition flourishes when you give it space to grow. Meditation can provide this. It is an organic process that allows prescience to mature gradually, in a healthy way. With time to assimilate this change, you will never be given more than you can handle. There’s a natural tempo to opening that occurs if you don’t force it before you’re ready. Sometimes we may move ahead in leaps and bounds, at other times take only tiny steps forward, or even think that we’re sliding backward. But however it may appear, this is an ongoing process of growth. Wisely prepare yourself to see. Make space for your own brilliance. Meditation can be your first step, a solid, well-grounded send-off to a truly amazing journey.

I’ve made the resolution to eat better and exercise several times, the problem was following through on those resolutions. Last year, I got a wake-up call in the form of intermittent chest pains which started right before the holidays. Now my “would be nice to do” resolutions have become a “must do” for the life I want. I’ve started eating more whole foods, I walk 6 miles every week and am working on adding a mile or more every week. I’m fairly certain I have found that “special” someone with whom I want to spend many more years building a life and creating memories.

—Vaishali, Illinois


What do I do for a healthy heart? I eat a variety of fruits and veggies and clean proteins, attend a yoga class twice a week, hit the gym regularly, am involved in my church and my community, try to forgive and forget, and run a happy healthy home.

—Angela, Florida


I care for my heart by what I eat and what I do. I stay away from packaged food as much as possible and cook instead. Lots of vegetables, fish and whole grains. Delicious and healthy for my heart, mind and body. The other care I commit to is exercise. If I am out and about I park as far away from the entrance of buildings, making me walk more. I also walk at least 1 hour from my home to any direction,with a wonderful mix of biking. Both of which are fantastic for my heart. One other is lots of water lots and lots of water.

—Cindy, California

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Dump artificial sweeteners and replace them with small amounts of natural sweeteners.

I love sweet things. I wish it wasn’t so, but growing up with a grandpa whom I adored who was a candy maker put me at a decided disadvantage. When I found it was essential to watch my weight, I was grateful for artificial sweeteners. No calories! How cool. Have as much as you want, I thought. Diet sodas became a regular companion for me and I drank a ton of them from age twenty-five to thirty-five. Then at age thirty-five, right as we started our brain imaging work, I found that I had problems getting off the floor when I played with my young children, because my joints hurt. Being a writer, I became even more concerned when my fingers and hands started to hurt as well.

Initially, I just wrote it off to old age. At thirty-five? Then as I became much more interested in learning about brain health, I discovered that there was a large body of information reporting that artificial sweeteners, like aspartame in diet sodas, may be associated with arthritis, gastrointestinal problems, headaches, memory problems, neurological problems, and a myriad of other maladies. I had a patient who told me her arthritis and headaches went away after she stopped aspartame. Another patient told me her confusion went away as she got rid of artificial sweeteners, and yet another patient told me that it was only after he stopped diet sodas that he was able to lose weight.

So I stopped aspartame and within four weeks, my arthritis went away. Just to test, as diet sodas have been a big part of my life, I tested it again with a diet soda at lunch. Within twenty minutes, my fingers started to hurt. So I decided to eliminate aspartame from my diet. The other artificial sweetener choices at the time either tasted bitter to me or had been reported to be possibly associated with cancer.

Then sucralose (Splenda) came along, and I felt as though I was in sweet heaven again, plus it had no aftertaste, and I did not have arthritis with it. In fact, sucralose was reported to be 600 times sweeter than sugar. Putting regular sugar in tea or lemonade was bland by comparison. Then, yet again, reports began to emerge that it was associated with health troubles, including decreasing the healthy bacteria in the intestinal tract.

Besides the reported health problems, one of the significant problems with artificial sweeteners is that they may increase sugar cravings. The empty calories prime the brain’s appetite centers to expect something good and when nothing comes, it wants more. Artificial sweeteners also desensitize your taste buds, and even naturally sweet things, such as a regular portion of sugar, are not enough to satisfy you.

Changing the sensitivity of your taste buds is clearly possible. If you were a diet soda drinker like me, remember how disgustingly sweet regular sodas tasted after you had not had them for a while? When you dump the artificial sweeteners your taste buds will adapt back to normal within a few weeks.

My favorite natural sweetener stevia, which has been reported to have anti-inflammatory and blood pressure lowering properties, has not been associated with negative health effects. Xylitol and agave are other natural sweeteners. With any of them, use sparingly, and you will be better off in the long run.

Another terribly disturbing trend is the artificial sweeteners that are ending up in gum, candy, packaged foods, sauces, vitamins, medications, nutritional powders, nutritional bars, popcorn, toothpaste, and water. The sweeter it is, these companies know, the more hooked you are likely to become. Fight back and do not collude with the food companies in your own demise.

Say that you’ve been procrastinating going to the gym. So you resolve to yourself: Tomorrow morning, right after I drop off Anna at school, I’ll head straight there for my workout. Let’s call this mental plan an “action trigger.” You’ve made the decision to execute a certain action plan (working out) when you encounter a certain situational trigger (the school circle, tomorrow morning).

The psychologists Peter Gollwitzer and Veronika Brandstatter have found that action triggers are quite effective in motivating action. In one study, they tracked college students who had the option to earn extra credit in a class by writing a paper about how they spent Christmas Eve. But there was a catch: To earn the credit, they had to submit the paper by December 26. Most students had good intentions of writing the paper, but only 33% of them got around to writing and submitting it.

Other students in the study were required to set action triggers—to note, in advance, exactly when and where they intended to write the report. (E.g., “I’ll write it in my Dad’s office on Christmas morning before everyone gets up”) A whopping 75% of these students wrote the report.

That’s a pretty astonishing result for such a small mental investment.

You mean just by imagining a time and place where you’ll do something, you make it more likely? Yes and no. Action triggers won’t get you (or anyone else) to do something they truly don’t want to do. An action trigger never would have convinced college students to participate in an online “calculus camp” on Christmas Day. But, as the extra-credit study demonstrates, action triggers can have a profound power to motivate people to do the things they know they need to do.

Peter Gollwitzer, a psychologist at New York University, is the pioneer of the work in this area, and the co-author of the extra-credit study. He argues that the value of action triggers is in the fact that we are pre-loading a decision. When you drop off Anna at school, it triggers the next action—going to the gym. There’s not even a conscious deliberation cycle. In pre-loading the decision, we conserve [our] self-control.