You Don't Have a "Male or Female Brain"

[janterry]

Studies Weaken Theories of Human Brain Sex Differences


Since the dawn of MRI, neuroscientists have worked ceaselessly to find differences between men’s and women’s brains. This research attracts lots of attention because it’s just so easy to try to link any particular brain finding to some gender difference in behavior.

But as a neuroscientist long experienced in the field, I recently completed a painstaking analysis of 30 years of research on human brain sex differences. And what I found, with the help of excellent collaborators, is that virtually none of these claims has proven reliable.

Except for the simple difference in size, there are no meaningful differences between men’s and women’s brain structure or activity that hold up across diverse populations. Nor do any of the alleged brain differences actually explain the familiar but modest differences in personality and abilities between men and women.

https://neurosciencenews.com/male-female-brain-debunked-18276/

[Goonch]

1. ;-{)

[Skittles]

2. no "job stuff" in the female brain

riiiiiiiiiiiight

[Maraya1969]

3. Then what explains the obvious differences between most men and women.

Sorry for being so stereotypical but girls usually like baby dolls and boy like playing with toy trucks. With ambiguous genitalia births now the child is allowed to grow some and show their parents what sex they are depending on these things.

I wonder if it is mostly hormones?

[I_UndergroundPanther]

4. Umm was born female

Liked climbing trees,catching frogs,playing with trucks and male action figures,liked playing fort and attacking my enemies with invented weapons. Would play football in the mud.

I did not play with girls except for my cousin who liked playing the same way I did.

My body as it matured went haywire and my sex was wrong.
I had pms so bad I would wind up being admitted to the psych ward. I would get so angry I would bite chairs to keep control.

Than when the hormone balance changed the anger and suicidal was subsided.


My uterus bled like a stuck pig. My periods would sometimes last a whole month. One day it didn't stop bleeding and they took that damn thing out of me.

After a few days a calm came to me that I have never known.

As each part of the female body parts were removed I got calmer and could think clearer. No female hormones making me crazy.


Getting transgender surgery saved my ass.

All my childhood for all intents and purposes I was a boy and saw myself as a boy. I didn't know what transgender was but by 6th grade I wore boys clothes.

How much of it had to do with my brain? I dunno but early in my development as a fetus I was bathed in male hormones as my mom took testosterone to dry her breasts up after having my sister. She was not aware she was pregnant at the time.That probably affected my developing brain and body both..

[Maraya1969]

6. That is the first time I've heard of a mother's hormones influencing someone's

sexual identity. I have heard how with each new son a mother has that son has a 32% or 35% greater chance of being gay. I had never heard it before as an explanation for transgenderism.

I'm glad you are happy now.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

7. This has not been scientifically validated

But I think it's true in my case.

Think of all the endocrine disruptors and hormones that flow into the water everyday..ya think that could explain the rise in trans kids. Don't get me started about the hormones in milk,practically the only drink besides water .. it was that way when I was in school..

They can't help being who they are just like I couldn't deny it either.

I tried but just couldn't stand it.

[Maraya1969]

8. Pyriproxyfen has been put in drinking water in Brazil. Look what it does.

Animal studies confirm malformations including bilateral gynandromorphism, eye and skin toxicity, endocrine and immunological disruption. Pyriproxyfen effectively interferes with reproductivity in mosquitoes and aquatic organisms through morphological changes in an endocrine system, sex organs, and secondary sexual behavior. Conclusion: Prenatal exposure to pyriproxyfen is associated with morphological abnormalities affecting fetal development. Studies support the plausible connection between congenital malformations in infants (as seen in ecological studies) and pyriproxyfen exposure in drinking water. Reproductive malformations (ambiguous genitalia, gynandromorphism, intersex) are voluntary reporting unless associated with CAH, and, therefore, may be unrecognized and underreported. Recommendations include the elimination of pyriproxyfen in drinking water sources.


https://unthsc-ir.tdl.org/handle/20.500.12503/26790

[leftieNanner]

12. Hormones in Milk

When my older daughter was 7 (SEVEN!!!) she began to develop breast buds. Our pediatrician told me to buy only organic milk and chicken. He said the hormones in those two products in particular were causing this. I did as he suggested and the buds disappeared then and returned at a more appropriate age.

It has been reported that girls in poorer communities are developing much younger - perhaps because their families cannot afford to buy organic milk and chicken.

I'm happy for you that you have been able to be the Authentic Panther!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

15. Aww thanks

I suspected this shit was going on in the early ninety's because I noticed kids didn't look thier age. I wrote a post about it on usenet. A publisher wanted me to write a book about it. But writing it quickly became an overwhelming project and I couldn't do it. There is more to this than the hormones that I put together it became very triggering. I had to stop for my mental health at the time.

[wnylib]

28. I'm not a biologist or in any health field,

but it does sound plausible that hormones are a source of gender identity. Other than the obvious external gender differences, hormones are the other area of differentiation.

I was born female and grew up with two older brothers and a younger sister. There were very few girls in my neighborhood when I was in grade school, and none near my age. My sister was too young to leave the house or yard for playtime, so I spent a lot of time with my brothers.

I played softball with them and their friends because I was a good batter. Didn't know or care much about the game itself, just did what they told me to. I climbed trees, did little gymnastic tricks that one brother (a natural gymnast) taught me. Explored woods with them at my grandfather's farm, and learned about petrified wood, discarded snakeskins, and fossiles in the creek bed. On Sunday afternoons, we went either to a matinee at a neighborhood theater or caught a bus to the one skating rink in town. They always met up with friends, leaving me as the one girl in the group, especially at the theater. At the skating rink, I was on my own to make my own friends.

I never felt like "one of the boys." Never identified with them. On my own, when they were not around, I played with dolls and dressed up in my mother's cast off clothes and jewelry. At family gatherings, I joined the female cousins my age.

In my teens, I hung out with other girls, had crushes on boys, etc.

The point is that I think that gender identity is a personal, internal thing, based largely on hormones rather than on social or family conditioning. Conditioning can play a role, perhaps, especially on limits placed on gender related activities. But how someone identifies is, AFAIK, hormonal.

[FirstLight]

17. That makes sense... I know many drugs & hormones can effect the baby

I also heard that increased stress can cause changes in the developing baby's brain chemistry. making them more prone to anxiety, depression etc

Both my sons were born under extremem stress and they both have defintie brain-chemistry issues. My oldest is severely depressed and has anger issues, the younger one also has a hairtrigger temper and possibly some BPD

My daughter was born in the middle and seems to be the most balanced.

I know that there's also a lot to be said about the environment, upbringing "nature v nurture" but It's bizarre to see the boys so different. Also, this is strange...the boys are 11 years apart, born of 2 different fathers...both never had him around at ALL growing up.
BUT - they both have such similar personalities to their dad's it's freaky...literally they both handle certain things the exact same way! I never saw anything like that before

[I_UndergroundPanther]

5. Umm was born female

Liked climbing trees,catching frogs,playing with trucks and male action figures,liked playing fort and attacking my enemies with invented weapons. Would play football in the mud.

I did not play with girls except for my cousin who liked playing the same way I did.

My body as it matured went haywire and my sex was wrong.
I had pms so bad I would wind up being admitted to the psych ward. I would get so angry I would bite chairs to keep control.

Than when the hormone balance changed the anger and suicidal was subsided.


My uterus bled like a stuck pig. My periods would sometimes last a whole month. One day it didn't stop bleeding and they took that damn thing out of me.

After a few days a calm came to me that I have never known.

As each part of the female body parts were removed I got calmer and could think clearer. No female hormones making me crazy.


Getting transgender surgery saved my ass.

All my childhood for all intents and purposes I was a boy and saw myself as a boy. I didn't know what transgender was but by 6th grade I wore boys clothes.

How much of it had to do with my brain? I dunno but early in my development as a fetus I was bathed in male hormones as my mom took testosterone to dry her breasts up after having my sister. That probably affected my developing brain.

Since testosterone is what makes a pregnancy test say you are pregnant and she was taking male hormones who knows how long I was getting dosed with testostrone
Before she figured out she was pregnant.

[pansypoo53219]

9. i hated baby dolls, i porefered blocks + hot wheels or tonkas.

i just ain't mommy material.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

16. I loved tonkas

And had an impressive hot wheels collection.
I loved legos.

[FirstLight]

18. I was a total "tom-boy" in the 70's too...

I used to take my dolls outside to climb trees, and drag them down the stairs by their foot, LOL

I wanted to be the first woman quarterback at 10...even played football with the neighborhood boys and had a little "playbook" I kept in my jewelry box!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

19. With the football

The kids in the neighborhood called me The tank..lol.

However I loved stuffed animals especially Cats. I was a total cat freak.
Still am. I had a few feline themed matchbox cars that I would not trade no matter what someone offered.

[FirstLight]

21. too cool

glad you got free of the hormones and the horrific uterus etc. I suffered my whole life with that shit.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

24. It sucks doesn't it

I drank iced mugwort tea by the gallon to ease those cramps that were so bad I'd think about killing myself. Knowing that I'd be dealing with that bullshit for decades.

When my mom took me to my very first gyn appointment I was horrified at the whole thing and asked the gyn to have my uterus taken out. I was like 12 or 13 at the time.

[FirstLight]

25. I finally had a hysterectomy 10 years ago

had 3 babies, but the periods got worse as I got older. Truns out I was full of fibroids and also had a couple ovarian cysts.

What sucks is i passed it on to my daughter, who is 19 and wants her shit yanked as well

But apparently, if you are of childbearing age, you cant do an elective hysterectomy unless you are married and get a spouse's ok :/ at least that's what she's found out from research

[I_UndergroundPanther]

26. How sexist

I bet a boy could get his vas deferens cut without asking his wife for permission.. what is this Iraq.

My psydoc back than was an idiot control freak . He tried to get in the way of me getting my tubes tied.


I said to him he was countertransferring on me and was projecting his own bullshit on me.
I chewed him out so bad he just shut up and got out of my way.

[FirstLight]

27. good for you!

I just looked it up and while there's no LAW about it most Doctors will refuse... of course they will.

what is this? the Handmaid's Tale? sheesh.

[JenniferJuniper]

10. Dolls are shoved down girls' throats from birth

I used to routinely toss them out of my crib

[wnylib]

29. I actually liked my dolls. Had quite

a collection of them, gave them all names, and had changes of clothes and a doll bed for them.

But I also liked some very active and sometimes rough physical play. My mother would brush my hair in the morning, which I loved, and put barretts and ribbons in it, which I thought were pretty. But by the time I came home at noon for lunch, the ribbons were lost somewhere andcthe barretts were skewed at odd angles, with my hair tangled up. Could not let looking nice get in the way of having a good time playing.

[Warpy]

14. The problem with that is the number of statistical outliers

I'm a cis straight (back when it mattered) female and I was happy with trucks and tools and chemistry sets and despised dolls.

I've also seen little girls wrap a Tonka in a blankie and put it to bed like a baby, while boys took a Barbie doll by the feet and yelled "bang!" Best idea is to listen to what the kid wants and go with the flow without getting the vapors over "what ifs."

Some of it might be innate, but a great deal of it is social. Pay close attention to gendering in books and videos and see what I mean.

Hormones don't enter much into it until puberty

[Claire Oh Nette]

33. Hated dolls

Liked Barbie, though, because she could date, and she dated GI Joe, when he had real hair.

Liked playing kickball and touch football and tree climbing and skateboarding.

Girls don't usually like anything anymore so that boys like snips and snails and puppy dog tails.

[Akacia]

11. I have taught young children for years and

the girls play with the blocks and trucks as much as the boys. Little boys will play with the dress up clothes and the dolls unless and until someone tells them those are girl toys. I have seen men freak out if they come to pick up their boys and their boy is playing with, "Girl toys", I do my best to educate them but societal norms are sadly deeply ingrained.

[musette_sf]

13. That is also my POV.

I loathe "evo-psych" and have always thought it was a load of bollocks/

[FirstLight]

20. I thought there was more corpus callosum in women?

The link between the two hemispheres of the brain, making it easier for us to multi-task... (which would seem like an evolutionary need when childrearing.)

[birdographer]

22. Hmmmm

I did a lot of reading on this at one time. I read nothing about tendencies toward dolls or toy trucks. It was about use of right brain and left brain. Men are often (please..."often" not always, don't flame me) better at spacial things (are there more male architects than female?). Women are better at language (not learning a foreign language but using their own to communicate) and tend to be more nurturing ("tend&quot . It was all left brain and right brain. Not dolls and trucks. But I'm fine with it being debunked. Although it did make perfect sense to me at the time I was reading it.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

23. The brains don't need to be different with hormones...

... affecting it.

Even microbes in the intestines can impact behavior.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25772005/

[wnylib]

30. Interesting. So a change in diet could

alter behavior and intellectual performance?

Wonder if it could be tried, with consent, on prison populations.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

31. It's still being studied, but...

... there's some very interesting connections between gut flora and brain function.

"Nova Wonders" had an episode about it, and the microbes throughout our bodies.

Some of the more interesting stuff about gut flora affecting behavior starts around the 41-minute mark of that episode, titled "What's Living in You?", which is viewable here:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/nova-wonders-whats-living-in-you/

The South Park writers obviously heard about it since they had an episode with everyone trying to acquire Tom Brady's poo, like 'the spice' from Frank Herbert's sci-fi novel, "Dune".

[wnylib]

32. Guess you really are what you eat.