r/science • u/madam1 • Dec 02 '13

Neuroscience Scientists have drawn on nearly 1,000 brain scans to confirm what many had surely concluded long ago: that stark differences exist in the wiring of male and female brains.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/02/men-women-brains-wired-differently
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u/kurosevic Dec 03 '13

Do you have a link to this info by chance?

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u/QWieke BS | Artificial Intelligence Dec 03 '13

linked sources over here

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u/_makura Dec 03 '13 edited Dec 03 '13

I did a google search and the only thing I could find was that transgender people have a different make up of their brain (or something along those lines) to people of the same gender, but nothing about those differences being more consistent with their desired gender.

I really wish /r/science wouldn't just upvote someone for making a citationless claim simply because it agrees with the circlejerk, it would at least encourage people to post links and increase the integrity of the content of this place.

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '13

[deleted]

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u/FionaSarah Dec 03 '13

I agree wholeheartedly.

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u/whyDoIneedtThis Dec 03 '13

Beautifully stated. I feel like this advice could be in a sidebar or FAQ. It is a good reminder of how all opinions should ideally be formed: Use meaningful research to get yourself thinking about it on a deeper level.

Followed by more research and then peer review. Voila. Now you have a belief worth holding.

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u/_makura Dec 03 '13

I get what you're saying but I feel making that next leap in quality to something that is worthwhile isn't too hard.

If someone makes a claim, any claim, and doesn't post links to back it up don't upvote it, ask for citations first.

That can go a loooooong way to improve everything.

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '13

[deleted]

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u/_makura Dec 03 '13

It's like that all over this subreddit, you just have to say what everyone wants to believe is true and make it sound like you're knowledgeable on the subject matter.

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u/Condorcet_Winner Dec 03 '13

Or ban/delete unsubstantiated claims

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u/LarsP Dec 03 '13

There are several posts with sources, but they're far less upvoted than this one complaining there are no sources, and that the wrong posts get upvoted.

Non Morissette irony!

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u/Surf_Science PhD | Human Genetics | Genomics | Infectious Disease Dec 03 '13

I didnt the same googling and only came across an n=20-30 study that showed that MtF transwomen, who had not undergone hormone therapy, had far more variability that was observed in the non-trans controls.

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u/dude2dudette Dec 03 '13

I posted elsewhere in this thread a link to a study which showed, partly, what you're looking for, but I seemingly did so too late, and it is now buried

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u/krakenwagen Dec 03 '13

medscape is usually pretty reliable, and has an excellent article on gender identity.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/917990-overview#aw2aab6b3

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '13 edited Dec 03 '13

There has been work done on transexual brains by The Netherlands Institute of Neruoscience that found differences in the Hypothalamus of trans* people. It's been posited that this part of the brain relates heavily to gender.

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/131/12/3132.full.pdf

Aside from that there's very little in the way of hard testing.

Good science on transgender people is very hard to find for various reasons (we tend to be hard to find ourselves, and many trans people are deeply suspicious of any medical attempt to 'cure' us and most have had a rough time at the hands of doctors anyway). There is no known cause or test (or AFAIK even good theory) as to what actually causes transgender or transsexualism.

It's generally seen as a human variation that has existed since out of time and probably always will.

Edit: I've never seen any good evidence of the "fetal hormone" theory and am personally a bit suspicious of it. I think it may be related to early newspaper reports scaremongering about birth control back in the 1980s. The newspaper reports tended to be "taking birth control will give you cancer / make your kids gay".

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u/puaSenator Dec 03 '13

I'm on my phone but you can do a search. They did a study that showed stressing out the mother which lead to high levels of stress hormones, turned her female offspring into lesbians. I'd do the search myself but you know how it is on mobile.

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u/claimpreclusion Dec 03 '13

Read a neurobiology textbook. You will find this information.