IT IS something one half of the population has long suspected, and the other has always vocally denied: women talk more than men.
In fact, women talk almost three times as much, uttering a staggering 20,000 words a day on average compared to men's 7000.
They speak more quickly, devote more brainpower to chit-chat and get a buzz out of hearing their own voices, a female psychiatrist suggests.
In her book, The Female Mind, Dr Luan Brizendine says the disparity is caused by differences in the male and female brain.
The sex hormone testosterone, responsible for moulding the male brain in the womb, shrinks the areas responsible for communication, emotion and memory, she claims.
The result is that men chat less than females and struggle to express their emotions to the same extent.
In contrast, women have more brain cells set aside for communication. And the act of talking triggers a flood of chemicals which gives them a rush similar to that felt by heroin addicts on a high.
Dr Brizendine, who runs a female "mood and hormone" clinic in the US and describes herself as a feminist, said testosterone also reduces the size of the section of the brain involved in hearing, allowing men to become "deaf" to the most logical of arguments put forward by women.
Their brain power, however, is definitely superior when it comes to sex.
Dr Brizendine believes the area responsible for sexual thoughts is twice as big in male brains.
Studies have shown that, while a man will think about sex every 52 seconds, the subject crosses women's minds just once a day, said said.
Dr Brizendine, whose findings are based on her analysis of more than 1000 scientific studies, added: "There is no unisex brain. Girls arrive already wired as girls, and boys arrive already wired as boys. Their brains are what drive their impulses, values and their very reality."
Other scientists, however, are sceptical about the effects of testosterone on the brain.
Deborah Cameron, an Oxford University linguistics professor, said the amount we talk is influenced by the social environment we live in.
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