Does The Pattern of A Person's Brain Determine Their Gender?

[Guest Burning Spirit]

It's a topic that lots of people have studied and taught in their lives. Which is why these findings are nothing new. Recently, screenshots of brains in both male and female brains show that both genders are psychologically wired up differently. I know that science cannot control what a person identifies themself as but does it show any connection?

It's been interesting me as it has been found that male brains think from front to back and female brains think from left to right in the centre. I am aware that I have strong MTF transgender feelings but I am also aware that the flow of brain feels like it goes from left to right rather than front to back although I am very good at mathematics which I why I question if the flow of a person's mind has any connection or relevance to their transgender feelings.

Also if the technology to scan all human brains was developed would they find out I was a transsexual?

[Guest AmyJean]

It's a topic that lots of people have studied and taught in their lives. Which is why these findings are nothing new. Recently, screenshots of brains in both male and female brains show that both genders are psychologically wired up differently. I know that science cannot control what a person identifies themself as but does it show any connection?

It's been interesting me as it has been found that male brains think from front to back and female brains think from left to right in the centre. I am aware that I have strong MTF transgender feelings but I am also aware that the flow of brain feels like it goes from left to right rather than front to back although I am very good at mathematics which I why I question if the flow of a person's mind has any connection or relevance to their transgender feelings.

Also if the technology to scan all human brains was developed would they find out I was a transsexual?

I thought about that too, but I don't think your math skills have anything to do with it. Humans are hard-wired to do math; you do math all the time and don't even realize it.

[Guest AmyJean]

It's a topic that lots of people have studied and taught in their lives. Which is why these findings are nothing new. Recently, screenshots of brains in both male and female brains show that both genders are psychologically wired up differently. I know that science cannot control what a person identifies themself as but does it show any connection?

It's been interesting me as it has been found that male brains think from front to back and female brains think from left to right in the centre. I am aware that I have strong MTF transgender feelings but I am also aware that the flow of brain feels like it goes from left to right rather than front to back although I am very good at mathematics which I why I question if the flow of a person's mind has any connection or relevance to their transgender feelings.

Also if the technology to scan all human brains was developed would they find out I was a transsexual?

I also think that the answer to your question is far more complex than a screenshot of your brain can answer. It might add to the answer, but it probably wouldn't provide the whole answer. Human consciousness - who you are - can not be fully described or evaluated through a screenshot of your brain any more than it can through a two dimensional photograph.

The entire structure of your brain is not set in stone, it actually changes as you learn new bits of information, and new skills. It's an extremely adaptable piece of bio-mechanical machinery. That said, the only way to really answer your question, I think, would be to take a snapshot of your brain activity before and after transition. I wonder - would it change?

[Guest Hunt]

This may not be very helpful but i always felt like my pattern of brain functioning was from front to back without having known that it was a gender specific thing in science

-Hunter

[JJ]

There are studies of the brain and gender etc in Science Direst -as well as the links here-http://aebrain.blogspot.com/p/transsexual-and-intersex-gender-identity.html

The links there are older but the new studies have only reinforced the conclusion that gender identity is determined by brain configuration-why and how is still being discussed a lt. I'm a DES baby and that has played a role for many. Even if someones parent or grandparent was exposed it can play a role because it altered DNA apparently.

When I started researching this 4 years ago the words used was that it was theorized that brain configuration determines gender identity- Now they are saying it does-not that it is theorized -on the scientific sites.

The newest brain imaging techniques do indicate a lot more about your brain configuration and can determine that you have a male or female brain-though of course as with anything physical there is a wide spectrum. The techniques are relatively new as I understand it and are why until recently it was speculated but not proven.

Interestingly I was diagnosed by a psychologist-even though I never disclosed my inner identity to him-as having a male brain in a female body over 45 years ago. He wasn't sure why and had never dealt with anything like it because he also felt I was very different from the norm but well adjusted and not in any sense mentally ill either. He had a lot of questions about my socialization and couldn't figure it out but felt it was something I would need to be aware of and compensate for because it would make life hard-He was right on that. His conclusion was based on a year of frequent therapy and extensive testing. I had gone to him for depression initially.

It is good now to have that diagnosis scientifically explained. I always knew it was correct. But living as a man is so much easier for me and people relate to me so much better because my behavior and thoughts at last match my appearance. I also think the implications as far as brain chemistry are massive for us. Male and female brains have also been found to have significant differences in numbers and types of hormone receptors so that essentially our brains are wired for hormones our bodies cannot manufacture on their own in sufficient quantities while flooded with what fr us is an excess of the other hormone. In support of that I was also diagnosed 37 years ago as being unusually sensitive to estrogen. I had normal levels yet reacted as if I had a hormone imbalance. I feel right on T for the first time in my life.

It is all complex and made more so by how unique and individual we all are

Johnny

[Guest LizMarie]

There is a link in my signature to a long video presentation, given at an AMA annual meeting in 2011, that discusses brain structure differences, why they occur, etc.

Below is an image that shows these differences. The MTF transgender individual's brain structure is nothing like a heterosexual or homosexual male in that region, and bears far closer resemblance to that of the heterosexual female. So far as I am aware (and I am a lay person so could be wrong), there are at least 9 documented potential brain structure differences between MTFs and other biological males. Also, though I follow this less closely, I believe there are as many as 11 documented differences between FTM brains and other biological females.

[Guest]

My whole physiology has changed so much I often wish I could be a test subject for all kinds of gender things. When I look on the web I only see survey type stuff. I want to be the lab rat.

I would love to see results from things I can't afford to pay for myself. I figure my economic life is so poor, it might be a way to find new opportunities. I want to donate my body to science long before I stop breathing. Maybe I should be very careful what I wish for. FrankenJody??? Hug. JodyAnn

[Guest KimberlyF]

Maybe, but I doubt that it could be put in the scientific fact column.

There isn't enough research and these tests are too expensive to run on everyone at the moment. But all it takes in one case to disprove a theory, like what happened when an XY woman gave birth, tossing the Theory that only XXs could give birth. How often does that happen? We don't know because every mother doesn't go through a round of genetic testing.

I would suspect when everything settles that people born in one bio sex who ID as the other also have the brain sex of the other is just a subset of those born one physical sex with brain similarities of the other.

Or, while not everyone with these differences would be Trans, the majority of Trans, or maybe even all, would end up with these differences.

There are already studies where gender-typical females with a certain condition have been shown to have a more masculinized brain.

[JJ]

The last time I was doing research on Science Direct the scientists doing the research were referring to it as fact.

Apparently they feel there is now enough scientic proof since it has been found in all the increasing number of studies done.

Do you have reference to other studies where exceptions have been found or I'd it speculation ?

[Guest KimberlyF]

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/aug/09/science/la-sci-sn-autism-gender-20130809

"A team of researchers at Cambridge University's Autism Research Center has found striking similarities between the structural anomalies found in the brains of women with autism spectrum disorder and neurobiological characteristics known to be different between males and females in general."

This is one example of one condition where females have male brain patterns are not, as a rule, Trans.

[JJ]

Then again there are the scientists who postulate we are diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorders where we do not becausr GD can cause autism spectrum symptoms in some individuals. It is the only explanation so far for why a disporportionate percentage of our community are diagnosed as autistic yet have appeared in some cases to no longer exhibit autism after transition.True autism is not curable and yet transition has appeared to cure us. We do not know if the women in that study suffer from TG or not.

I will agree it is a wide open field with info coming in at a rste thst is astounding. But the fact that some women diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders have different and more male brains does not invalidate the proof that TS do as well.

[Guest KimberlyF]

I will agree it is a wide open field with info coming in at a rste thst is astounding. But the fact that some women diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders have different and more male brains does not invalidate the proof that TS do as well.

Which of course I never claimed that it did.

Or, while not everyone with these differences would be Trans, the majority of Trans, or maybe even all, would end up with these differences.

I was answering the question posed in the title of the thread: Does the pattern of a person's brain determine their gender?

I said I doubted it was a fact. If one of these female born autistics in the study with some male brain patterns have a strong female self-ID, then the answer to the question would be maybe or often, but not yes or no just based on the few studies avail.

I am always willing to share links and such so that people can see where I get my POVs. If anyone has any links where scientists are claiming the question stated in the OP is a fact, I'd be interested to read their findings.

[Guest N. Jane]

In 1966 Dr. Benjamin wrote that he had little doubt that one day it would be shown that there was a biological basis for transsexualism!

Having 'been on this side of the fence' for 40 years it has long been apparent to me the differences between male and female thought patterns, thought patterns that can not be attributed strictly to socialization. One of the most striking and otherwise explainable examples presented itself to me 35 years ago.

I was working in the field of microelectronics at the time, a field then in its infancy. I was designing hardware and writing software for industrial applications (in the days long before the PC) and I always dreaded having to work on someone else's software because I found it extremely difficult to understand where it was going or why things were done in a certain order - it seemed illogical and obtuse to me - of course at that time my contemporaries was always male.

In the early 1980s the firm I was with hired a female engineer, the first one I had ever worked with, and after a time, while she was away on vacation, the director asked me to make a change to the operation of a software package she had written. With considerable reluctance I began reading her code and to my amazement I found it very easy to understand - it was as if I had written it myself! The order was the same I would have used, the methods were the same, and I knew why she did everything she did. I found the same concurrence in her hardware design - it was as if we were of one mind though we were of different ethnic backgrounds, grew up in different parts of the country, attended different schools, and had entirely different 'socialization'. In the end we made an incredible team because we were always "in sync" and each could anticipate the other. The only thing she and I had in common was gender; and yet, with many males with whom I should have had more in common, there was always a discordance. Definitely different thought processes!

[Guest BeckyTG]

Jane, those are interesting observations.

I work in a totally male-dominated industry. As I've participated in discussion groups, I seem to take issues that everyone else (male) has hashed over to death and come up with innovative new solutions that no one has ever considered before.

It's been obvious over time that my thought patterns were distinctly different than everyone else. That's because they were all males.

Now I have some clues as to the real difference for my ideas.

Thank you for your valuable contributions here.

[Guest]

For me recalling early days it was always something more on an emotional level. But it was all forced to be stuffed down and shut off, As a gearhead I always put the building blocks together differently. I don't have any more conclusions about it other than that.

[Guest devida]

Jane, that is awesome. I do wonder if my lifetime feelings that I think differently from most males would be reflected in, for example, my preference for associative and allusive connections rather than logical or linear ones. So, how was the coding actually easier for you because she was a woman? I am much more of a script monkey than a real coder but I know the coding mindset. If you want to, please expand.

[Guest N. Jane]

....So, how was the coding actually easier for you because she was a woman?

Working with code written by another woman was like working with code I had written because she did things the same way I would have. I could understand "where she was going" before reading it all and see exactly how she was setting things up for the next section.

Since we both did both software and hardware design, often on the same project, there were things that could be done in hardware that would make the software easier (or visa versa) and frequently we would both pop up over the divider to suggest it to the other only to find the other had popped up at the same moment with the same idea! After awhile it was so common that often words didn't have to be exchanged - we just both knew we had the same idea.