Are gay peoples brains different

We examined potential cerebral structural differences linked to sexual orientation in a group of 74 participants, including 37 men (21 homosexual) and 37 women (19 homosexual) using voxel-based. Researchers using brain scans have found new evidence that biology—and not environment—is at the core of sexual orientation.

Scientists at the Stockholm Brain Institute in Sweden report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that gay men and straight women share similar traits—most notably in the size of their brains and the activity of the amygdala—an area of the brain tied to emotion, anxiety and aggression.

Subscribe to Scientific American to learn and share the most exciting discoveries, innovations and ideas shaping our world today. Subscription Plans Give a Gift Subscription. The team next used PET positron emission tomography scans to measure the blood flow to the amygdala , that part of the brain controlling emotion, fear and aggression.

June 16, 2 min read. The researchers used MRIs to determine the volume and shapes of the brains of 90 volunteers—25 straight and 20 gay members of each sex. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. 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.

The brain region that showed the most consistent sexual orientation‐related differences in both male and female homosexuals was the calcarine sulcus. To get around this, Savic-Berglund focused on the structure and function of brain regions that develop during fetal development or early infancy—without using any cognitive tasks or rating systems.

They found that the straight men and gay women had asymmetrical brains ; that is, the cerebrum the largest part of the brain, which is responsible for thought, sensory processing, movement and planning was larger on the right hemisphere of the brain than on the left.

The problem was that there was no way to determine whether their responses were colored by learned social cues. Brain scans provide evidence that sexual orientation is biological. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

The images showed how the amygdala connects to other parts of the brain, giving them clues as to how this might influence behavior. In contrast, they found that women and gay men had symmetrical cerebrums. But he cautions that these findings may vary in different people whose sexual orientation is not that clear-cut , which his own research shows includes a majority of the population.

However, both straight men and. The same is true for heterosexual men and lesbians. Researchers using brain scans have found new evidence that biology—and not environment—is at the core of sexual orientation. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing.

Join Our Community of Science Lovers! They found that in gay men and women, the blood flowed to areas involved in fear and anxiety, whereas in straight men and lesbians it tended to flow to pockets linked to aggression. Study author, neurologist Ivanka Savic—Berglund , says such characteristics would develop in the womb or in early infancy, meaning that psychological or environmental factors played little or no role.

They scanned subjects' brains when they at rest and did not show them photos or introduce other behavior that might have been learned. By Nikhil Swaminathan.