Different brains, different realities? Most of us go through our days without wondering why in toy stores separate aisles are designated for boys' toys, such as puzzles and building blocks, and girls' toys, such as dolls and tea sets. We don't always consciously notice that men dominate certain professional fields while women dominate others. And why is there a higher percentage of gay men (or more "feminized" men) in the dramatic and passionate world of the performing arts? Are these sexual tendencies all acculturations? If we don't stop to explore the origins and implications of our observations, we make the mistake of glossing over them with an uninformative, "fact of life" explanation that overlooks the why of the problem. Perhaps one of these "whys" involves biological premises. Steroid hormones secreted by the gonads (primarily androgens in males and estrogens and progestins in females), for example, are not limited to the lower half of the body and are known to have divergent effects on the brains of different sexes. Although the male and female brains may appear structurally identical (except that the male brain is approximately 10% larger) (1), morphological differences abound newborn, long before it has the opportunity to interact with its culture. In rodents, for example, testosterone masculinizes the brain to prevent ovulatory behavior conversion of testosterone to estrogen in the brain. Female rodents are protected from this estrogen-based masculinization by a protein in the blood called AFP. However, a small amount of estrogen actually enters the brain and this could be resp... middle of paper... stupidity or "weirdness". It is useful to recognize that, essentially, we may be experiencing different realities! As we learn to stop underestimating the power of a hormone, we can also learn more about ourselves, the opposite sex, and our interactions. And, just as we sometimes have to “agree to disagree,” perhaps we also have to be willing to “understand in order not to understand.” References 1) This article reflects the research and thoughts of a student at the time the article was written for a course at Bryn Mawr College. Like other materials on Serendip, it is not intended to be "authoritative" but rather to help others further develop their own explorations. The web links were active when the article was published but are not updated.Contribute your thoughts | Search Serendip for more documents | Serendip Home Page http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/cgi-bin/comments