Brain Gender - M. Hines (Oxford, 2004) WW

324 Pages·2004·17.63 MB·English

Brain Gender

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BRAIN
GENDER

Melissa Nines

OXPORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS

OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Copyright © 2004 by Melissa Hines

First published in 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10016
www.oup.com

First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback in 2005.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hines, Melissa.
Brain gender
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-508410-8 (cloth)—978-0-19-518836-3 (pbk.)
ISBN 0-19-508410-1 (cloth)—0-19-518836-5 (pbk.)
1. Neuropsychology. 2. Sex differences.
3. Psychoneuroendocrinology. I. Title.
QP360.H56 2003 155.3—dc21 2003042950

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper

To my parents,

William Joseph Hines

and

Janice Ethel Cecilia Mary Sersig Mines

To my husband,

Richard Green

And to NIC son,

Adam Hines-Green

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Preface

W

ho isn't interested in sex differences and their origins? Per-
haps no one. My own serious interest in the topic probably
began at Princeton. I started my intellectual training there
in 1969 as part of the first freshman class that included women. One
of my earliest communications from the University informed me that
my dormitory assignment was to a "two man room." Fortunately, the
other man in the room turned out to be someone named Emily.
Later, one of my precept leaders called me Mr. Hines for several
weeks, apparently before realizing that I was not male. I began to un-
derstand that long-established institutions, and their forms, both
written and spoken, change slowly.
From Princeton I went to UCLA to study for a Ph.D. in psychol-
ogy. I was interested in aggression—its causes and cures. I enrolled in
the personality program, assuming that there was something called
an aggressive personality. I already knew that the aggressive charac-
ters I was interested in understanding tended to be men. I soon
learned that, in other species, gonadal hormones, particularly an-
drogens, had powerful influences on aggression. I also became aware
that UCLA was a hotbed of research on hormones and the develop-
ment of sex differences. Unusually for a student of personality, I de-
cided to minor in neuroscience, as well as developmental psychology,
and focused my dissertation research on the sex-related behavior of

Vll

viii
Preface

women whose mothers had taken the synthetic estrogen diethyl-
stilbestrol (DES) during pregnancy. Subsequently, I joined the Labo-
ratory of Neuroendocrinology at the UCLA Brain Research Institute
for postdoctoral training, and for the next five or six years, did basic
research at UCLA and at the University of Wisconsin, investigating
hormonal influences on brain development in rodents. Eventually, I
returned to human research, focusing primarily on studies of people
who were exposed to unusual levels of androgens or other hormones
prenatally. Along the way, I also trained, and was licensed, as a clini-
cal psychologist.
As a result of this unusual education, I bring three different per-
spectives to my work on the origins of sex differences, a personal-
ity/social/developmental perspective, a neuroscience perspective,
and a clinical perspective. Since beginning to study sex differences, I
have been surprised at the polarization of research in the field. Re-
searchers generally approach their work from a social perspective or
from a hormonal/genetic perspective. This can involve lip service to
the existence and validity of the alternative perspective, but rarely
does it involve a serious attempt to integrate the two. Even worse, the
perspectives are often seen as adversarial, and those subscribing to
one perspective show not only a lack of understanding of the other,
but sometimes also disrespect for it. Among the more biologically
oriented, this can express itself as a view that those who see social in-
fluences as paramount are victims of political correctness. For their
part, those with a more social perspective can view the biological
camp as simplistic reductionists. One aim of this book is to try to
present both perspectives in a respectful and balanced way and,
where possible, to see if bringing both perspectives to bear on the
question of sex differences can lead to a better understanding, or at
least, new research approaches.
I have tried to make this book accessible to a wide variety of
readers, including academics, in disciplines ranging from social sci-
ences to neurosciences; clinicians, including medical doctors, as well
as psychologists; students from the advanced undergraduate to the
postgraduate and postdoctoral level; and the interested lay person.
Some of the material is technical, particularly that in Chapters 2 to 4
and Chapter 10. Each chapter should be able to stand alone, how-
ever, and readers can choose to skip material that is more technical
than their needs. There also is a glossary and cross-referencing (as

Preface
IX

well as the usual index) to lead readers to relevant material from
other chapters.
Much research on the development of sex differences is basic
science. However, this research has numerous social implications,
some of them of fundamental importance to society. For instance,
some scientists have suggested that men and women are innately pro-
grammed for different cognitive abilities and interests and that these
innate differences make sex segregation in occupations (e.g, men
scientists, women teachers) inevitable. Others have suggested that
males may be innately incapable of child care, preprogrammed to be
aggressive, or unavoidably sexually promiscuous. Basic research, both
from the social and the neuroscience perspective, can help address
these claims. Finally, recent years have seen the resurfacing of an im-
portant clinical issue related to proper guidance for children born
with intersex genitalia (neither clearly male or clearly female) and
their parents. Medical practice generally has been to surgically femi-
nize these infants and rear them as girls. Of late, questions have been
raised as to the wisdom of this practice. It is hoped that this book will
inform that debate as well.

London
M.H.