Researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago and the University of Haifa in Israel show both areas of the brain associated with language work harder in girls than in boys during language tasks, and that boys and girls rely on different parts of the brain when performing these tasks.

"Our findings -- which suggest that language processing is more sensory in boys and more abstract in girls -- could have major implications for teaching children and even provide support for advocates of single-sex classrooms," Douglas D. Burman of Northwestern University said in a statement.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers measured brain activity in 31 boys and in 31 girls, ages 9 to 15, as they performed spelling and writing language tasks.

The study, published in the journal Neuropsychologia, found that girls showed significantly greater activation in language areas of the brain than boys.