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Related Experiment Videos

Gender and sexual orientation in relation to hypothalamic structures.

D F Swaab1, L J Gooren, M A Hofman

  • 1Netherlands Institute for Brain Research, Amsterdam.

Hormone Research
|January 1, 1992
PubMed
Summary

Human brain studies reveal significant sex differences in hypothalamic nuclei volume and cell count. Postnatal development influences these differences, with implications for understanding sexual orientation and brain development.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Human Anatomy
  • Developmental Biology

Background:

  • Evidence for sex differences in animal brains exists from synaptic to behavioral levels.
  • Research into functional and structural human brain sex differences is a relatively recent field.
  • Previous studies identified sexually dimorphic nuclei (SDN) in the rat hypothalamus and human brain structures.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate structural sex differences in the adult human hypothalamus, specifically the sexually dimorphic nucleus (SDN).
  • To examine the developmental timing of sexual differentiation in the human hypothalamus.
  • To test the hypothesis that homosexual men exhibit a 'female' differentiation of the hypothalamus.

Main Methods:

  • Postmortem analysis of hypothalamic tissue from adult humans.

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  • Measurement of volume and cell number in the sexually dimorphic nucleus (SDN) and suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN).
  • Comparison of these measures between heterosexual men, homosexual men, and women, as well as across different age groups.

    • Main Results:

    • The human SDN was found to be more than twice as large in adult men as in women, with roughly double the cell number.
    • Sexual differentiation of the SDN becomes apparent postnatally, between 2-4 years of age, through a decrease in volume and cell number in females.
    • Homosexual men showed no difference in SDN volume or cell number compared to heterosexual men, but had twice the SCN cell number compared to a reference group.

    Conclusions:

    • Structural sex differences exist in the adult human hypothalamus, with significant postnatal developmental influences.
    • The findings do not support the hypothesis of a 'female' hypothalamic differentiation in homosexual men regarding the SDN.
    • A larger suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) cell number in homosexual men suggests a potential neurobiological correlate with sexual orientation, possibly linked to developmental timing.