For example, the amygdalas of gay men had more in common with those of straight women – the two halves were well-connected, they had more neurons projecting from the left half (as opposed to the right in straight men) and these neurons connected to the same parts of the brain that those of straight women do.
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That was the pattern that Savic and Lindstrom saw the straight volunteers from their study, but the homosexuals showed the reverse pattern. From previous studies, we know that these connections usually link to different areas in the brains of men and women, and sprout from different hemispheres -the right in men, and the left in women. These visuals revealed the connections that link the amygdala to other parts of the brain. Savic and Lindstrom also used another brain-scanning technique called PET to measure the flow of blood into the amygdala, a part of the brain involved in processing emotions. They also tend to outperform gay men and straight women in tests of spatial awareness, where success depends on a part of the brain – the parietal cortex – which is usually larger in men than in women. When listening to sounds, straight men tend to have a bias for their right ear, which both gay men and straight women lack. The idea that straight men have more asymmetrical brains than gay men fits with previous research.
![how do gay men have sex how do gay men have sex](https://www.pride.com/sites/default/files/2017/08/23/00_gay-sex.jpg)
But attractive faces and enticing pheromones are both related to sex, and responses to them could be learned over time.īut Savic’s and Lindstrom’s new study shows that these differences extend to fundamental aspects of the brain that aren’t directly linked to sex or behaviour, and that are probably fixed from birth. The same patterns apply when people smell chemicals that probably act as human pheromones. For example, parts of the brain involved in reward and emotion are more strongly activated when straight men and lesbian women look at female faces, and when straight women and gay men see male faces. The two halves of the cerebellum, which sits at the brain’s base, were symmetrical in all of the volunteers, regardless of sex or sexual preference.Įarlier studies have found similar results for patterns of brain activity. These differences only applied to the large cerebrum, which makes up most of our brains.
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However, both straight men and lesbians had slightly asymmetrical brains, with the right hemisphere being 1-2% larger on the left. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Savic and Lindstrom showed that the brain’s two halves are almost exactly the same size in straight women and gay men. Their images show that in the brains of gay people, certain features including symmetry and connections to the brain’s emotional centre are more closely matched to the brains of straight people from the opposite sex. Ivanka Savic and Per Lindstrom at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm scanned the brains of 90 men and women of different sexual orientations. Unauthorized use is prohibited.Ī new study adds new weight to this evidence by using brain-scanning technology to look at the differences between the brains of gay and straight people.