Scientists Link Brain Symmetry, Sexual Orientation

[Pale Blue Dot]

A scientist with a brain scanner could figure out your sexual orientation based on the symmetry of your brain, new research from the Stockholm Brain Institute hints.

The findings support the notion that biological factors help determine sexual orientation and leave a specific neuroanatomical signature.

Using MRI scans of gay and straight men and women, the researchers found that people who liked women -- heterosexual men and homosexual women -- had larger right brain hemispheres, while people who liked men -- heterosexual women and homosexual men -- had symmetrical brains. As seen in the image, MRI and PET scans showed a similar pattern in two specific regions of the brain, the right and left amygdalas, which are thought to control fight-or-flight reactions.

"The results cannot be primarily ascribed to learned effects, and they suggest a linkage to neurobiological entities," the researchers, led by Ivanka Savic, write in a paper that will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences tomorrow.

Scientists have long tried to determine if sexual orientation is biologically determined, and if so, how. This research has been contentious in and outside the gay community. At stake is whether homosexuality is a choice or biologically inevitable. The groundbreaking work in the field of biological difference came from Simon LeVay, a self-identified gay neuroscientist, who found similarities in the brains of straight women and gay men in the early 90s. LeVay has his detractors, but recent studies seem to back his early research.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/scientists-link.html

But I thought homosexuality was a "choice"? :sarcasm:

[Selatius]

1. Important find, but the religious zealots will never listen and still claim it's a "life choice." nt

[PBS Poll-435]

4. I can imagine a mandatory MRI to determine suitability for employment, housing, etc.

While discoveries make the short term better, they make the long term terrifyingly worse.

[Selatius]

6. At that point, I would say that sexual orientation should fall under civil rights protection.

It would open the door for a new civil rights movement in America.

[originalpckelly]

7. Pshyeah! We already have a machine to find out if people are gay...

it's called gaydar!

"Is my son gay?"

"Well, I'd have to say this one is pretty obvious, considering he just felt me up outside the door."

[jazzjunkysue]

2. "Larry Craig. Paging Larry Craig."

[bluedawg12]

3. It IS important- it's who people are and not a poltical football! n/t

[originalpckelly]

5. Oh god, that means I've a woman in my brain?

:scared:

Womenz scarez me!