Question: Is there evidence that there is no such a thing as a male brain or a female brain?

submitted by AllInOne from (self.GenderCritical)

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[–]Realwoman 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

There are differences between men and women but there is zero evidence that trans people possess the brain of the opposite sex. Also, let's use a very well known physical difference that not controversial - height. Men are taller than women and that's a fact. But does a short man have a woman's body? Is a tall woman a man? No, of course not.

If such a thing as a ladybrain existed, transgenderism would be easy to diagnose with a brain scan. But somehow no one uses brain scans to diagnose transgenderism, I wonder why? 🤔

Here is a great article:

https://theelectricagora.com/2020/06/02/on-sex-and-gender-identity-perspectives-from-biology-neuroscience-and-philosophy/

It's a long read, here are three paragraphs:

The volume of the central subdivision of the bed nucleus of the stria terminals (BSTc), a brain area assumed to be essential for sexual behaviour in mammals, has been shown to be larger in males than in females. The foundational paper of the “brain sex” idea found that transgender people have BSTc typical of the other sex and concluded that transwomen have a women’s brain. (Zhou, Hofman et al. 1995) There are several caveats to this work and subsequent supporting studies. (Zhou, Hofman et al. 1995; Bao and Swaab, 2011) The findings are based on a very small number of subjects: only six transgender individuals, including only one female to male transgender person, were examined, and there is an overlap in the BSTs size range within the control population, begging the question whether the results are statistically significant. No systematic control for sexual orientation, which is known to influence the sexual differentiation of the brain, was performed. (Burke, Manzouri et al. 2017) The study was based on post-mortem observations and on a very small, specific area of the brain’s grey matter. The interpretation that the BSTs size is involved in the sexualisation of the brain is based on non-human models and there was no assessment of the impact of socialisation or potential hormonal treatments on the differentiation of the BSTc volume, which arises late in life (puberty), compared to other brain structures. More recent studies covering a much greater number of patients (Burke, Manzouri et al. 2017; Savic and Aver 2011) show that gender dysphoria has a unique fingerprint in the white matter connectivity, morphometry and structural volumetry of the brain, rather than a sex-atypical signature. In many of the white matter tracts studied by fractional anisotropy (FA) the transgender groups displayed overall (birth) sex-typical patterns, a similar degree of sexual differentiation as observed in homosexuals and a lower sexual differentiation than heterosexuals. (Burke, Manzouri et al. 2017) The lesser sexual differentiation in the brain of homosexual and transgender may be related to testosterone levels during foetal development. Interestingly, several studies that describe FA sex-atypical patterns in the transgender population do not control for sexual orientation. This study does correct the data for sexual orientation and shows that both male and female homosexuals exhibit as much sex-atypical features in selected parts of the brain as the transgender group. Yet homosexuals do not identify as being of the other sex or as having a female (male) brain in a male (female) body. When corrected for sexuality, people with gender dysphoria have a (birth) sex-typical brain but the part of the fronto-occipital track involved in processing body perception in relation to self, body awareness and ownership shows atypical features that neither the heterosexual nor the homosexual control (non-trans) groups possess.

Another study based on MRI scans from eight young transgender men (female at birth) shows that the area of the brain reacting to stimuli to the chest displays a dampened sensory response in transmen compared to female controls (n = 8). (Case, Brang et al. 2017) It is worth noting that this study had no male control group. This study, despite a very low number of participants and no male control group, is often cited to support the premise that trans-men have a male brain. We can argue that, in fact, these findings do not support the conclusion that transmen have a male typical reaction to stimuli and hence a male typical brain. Instead, the results are better explained by the observations and findings cited above that gender dysphoria is caused by atypical body ownership and self-perception in the fronto-occipital part of the brain (see above). (Burke, Manzouri et al. 2017) A more recent study points out that many of the brain-specific differences associated with gender dysphoria are situated in areas dealing with body ownership, distress and social behaviour. All are highly susceptible to be influenced by socialisation and trauma rather than innate. (Gliske, 2019)

[–]Realwoman 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Here's some more:

Despite well-documented innate structural brain differences and the sex-specific early socialisation under which the brain plastically develops, males and females show an extraordinarily large overlap in psychological traits and cognitive types (empathic vs. systemic e.g. (Greenberg, Warrier et al. 2018)). In terms of cognitive abilities, psychology and behavioural expression, studies show that there are no clear male or female brains. One such study conducted in almost half a million people endeavoured to track brain-type differences and the signature of autism by scoring empathy (emotion), sensorial perception and systemizing (analytical) quotients using a simple questionnaire. Despite the complete overlap in the score distribution between male and female controls for these three parameters, the study found a small difference in the sex-specific averages and proceeded to conclude that there are typical female (empathic) and male (analytical) brains. However, what the data truly show is that the distributions are almost identical between men and women, with only a small difference in the modes (score reached by the highest number of people) of these 3 parameters between males and females. This means that the majority of men and women share the same score distribution for these parameters with a slightly increased number of men scoring marginally higher on the systematic quotient and lower on the empathic quotient compared to women. In addition, the finding that females score slightly higher on average for empathy for instance could be due to two factors: 1) the study relies on subjective responses to a coarse questionnaire, therefore the answers are subjective and can be influenced by internalised social expectations and 2) the alleged greater empathy displayed by women on average may be due entirely to socialisation in a world that often expects women to assume caring (empathetic) roles. The empathic- and systemic-type brains exist in both males and females including in their extreme manifestation and the variability observed within a sex is much greater than the average difference between sexes. (Baron-Cohen, Richler et al. 2003, Greenberg, Warrier et al. 2018)

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Fantastic! Thank you.