Off Tangent Comix
See our Annotated List of DSM-related news, research reports, analyses, and opinion pieces.
Visit the TS-Si Article Archive for reports on science, medicine, government, society, and other topics.
DNA Blueprints Guide The Construction Of Specific Human Structures
Chad Mirkin discusses using DNA to build a three-dimensional structure out of gold, likening the process to building a house. Starting with basic materials such as bricks, wood, siding, stone and shingles, a construction team can build many different types of houses out of the same building blocks.
The article includes an audio recording of the full interview. Photo courtesy of the UCSD School of Medicine.
| Hormones, Brain Activity, And Women's Facial Preferences |
 |
 |
| Medicine - Hormones & Meds | |||||||||
| TS-Si News Service | |||||||||
| Thursday, 20 November 2008 15:00 | |||||||||
|
Blomington, UN, USA. Researchers continue to accumulate evidence of a complex interplay between a female's brain and her hormones. While a woman's brain and body may need female hormones for proper functioning, it is also known that varying levels of female hormones can have physiological and emotional effects.
Scientists have long known that women's preferences for masculine men change throughout their menstrual cycles, a time of fluctuating hormone levels. Understanding the effects of varying hormone levels is essential to proper maintenance of women's health. This has implications for natal women before and after menopause, as it does for other females on hormone dosages, such as MtF patients.
New studies, much more rigorous than those based on interviews and social observation, have focused on measureable changes in the brain's electrical and chamical states when under the influence of varying hormone dosages.
A new study from the Kinsey Institute is the first to demonstrate differences in brain activity as women considered masculinized and feminized male faces and whether the person was a potential sexual partner.
Focusing on the menstrual cycle offer a quantitative basis for measuring the actual efects. The researchers identified regions of the brain that responded more strongly to masculine faces and demonstrated that differences between masculinized and feminized faces appeared strongest when the women were closer to ovulating. The study, published in Evolution and Human Behavior, sheds light on the link between women's hormone levels and their brain responses to masculinized versus feminized male faces, potentially offering insights into female mate preferences.
The current study points towards enhancements of both sensory discrimination and risk processing around ovulation in response to masculine faces as possible mediators of women's mate preferences.
"One area of the brain in which we observed a difference in activation in response to masculinized versus feminized faces — specifically during the follicular phase — was the anterior cingulate cortex, which is a region involved in decision-making and the evaluation of potential reward and risk," said neuroscientist Heather Rupp, research fellow at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.
 Research opportunities offered by patients with a history of anatomical misalignmentMen and women who have corrected the misalignment of their anatomical sex are a unique — but virtually unutilized — resource for research studies. Men with such histories are unencumbered with long-term exposure to testosterone, while the women do not have menstrual histories and are non-menopausal.
Both men and women in this population group exhibit the measurable consequences of hormone therapy (HT) and related medication. Moreover, the group identification does not depend on race or other criteria susceptible to psychosocial misinterpretatons.
Even though the women have never been through menopause, doctors, endocrinologists and other medical practioners still use traditional practice and deny the appropriate types of estrogen and sufficient dosages to their MtF patients when prescribing hormones.
This practice derives from studies of women who have been prescribed hormone combinations with known deleterious effects and projecting those effects to all estrogen-inclusive regimens.
It is a biased practice based on uninformed presumptions that such patients seek pretense and can not be considered as women themselves. Much of the confusion derives from a failure by practitioners to distinguish between HBS and paraphilia.
However, the existence of a qualified post-op population offers the opportunity for informative baseline comparisons when studying the unique health concerns of all men and women, regardless of thier birth circumstances. Previous studies have shown that women's sexual preference for facial characteristics vary depending on their menstrual phase. These fluctuating preferences are thought to reflect evolutionarily founded changes in women's reproductive priorities.
Around the time of ovulation women prefer more masculinized faces — faces with features that indicate high levels of testosterone. These facial cues predict high genetic quality in the male because only such males can afford the immune-compromising effects of testosterone.
Testosterone may be costly for the males' mates as well because high testosterone levels also are associated with high rates of offspring abandonment.
Around the time of ovulation, a female's preference apparently shifts from avoiding negligent parenting to acquiring the best genes for her offspring. At other points during the cycle, women will prefer more feminized male faces, as they might signal a higher willingness of the males to invest in offspring.
Rupp and her team set out to explore the link between hormone levels and brain responses to masculinized versus feminized male faces.
Researchers found differences in brain regions related to face perception, decision making and reward processing that responded more strongly to masculinized than feminized faces, suggesting that "neural activation in response to face stimuli is sensitive to facial masculinization, even in the absence of differences in subjective ratings." Differences between masculinized and feminized faces appeared strongest during the follicular phase, closer to ovulation.
FundingThe study was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH).
AuthorsIn addition to Heather Rupp, co-authors include Thomas W. James, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; Ellen D. Ketterson, Department of Biology; Dale R. Sengelaub, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; Erick Janssen, Kinsey Institute; Julia R. Heiman, Kinsey Institute and Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
CitationNeural activation in women in response to masculinized male faces: mediation by hormones and psychosexual factors. Heather A. Rupp, Thomas W. James, Ellen D. Ketterson, Dale R. Sengelaub, Erick Janssen, Julia R. Heiman. Evolution & Human Behavior. In Press. PII: S1090-5138(08)00087-1 doi: 10.1016 / j.evolhumbehav.2008.08.006
Abstract Women's preference for masculine faces varies with hormonal state, sociosexuality, and relationship status, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We hypothesized that hormones and psychosexual factors (sociosexuality, sexual inhibition/excitation) mediate the perception and evaluation of male faces thereby influencing women's preferences. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity in 12 women as they evaluated pictures of male faces (half 30% masculinized, half 30% feminized). Participants were heterosexual women, age 23–28 years, who were not in a committed relationship and not using hormonal contraception. Women were tested during both the follicular and luteal phase of their menstrual cycle. We found five brain regions related to face and risk processing that responded more to the masculinized than to the feminized faces, including the superior temporal gyrus, precentral gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex, inferior parietal lobule, and anterior cingulate cortex. Increased activation in the anterior cingulate cortex, specifically, may indicate that women perceive masculinized faces to be both more risky and more attractive. We did not see any areas that were more strongly activated by feminized faces. Levels of activation were influenced by hormonal and psychosexual factors. The patterns of hormonally and psychosexually mediated neural activation observed may offer insight into the cognitive processes underlying women's partner preferences.
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Email This
Comments (0)
 Write comment
|
|||||||||
| Last Updated on Friday, 21 November 2008 07:51 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
The TS-Si News Service is a collaboration of TS-Si staff, contributors, and corresponding institutions. Contents do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates.We welcome responsible comments. Use the public article forms throughout this site or send private correspondence via the TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.
Except where noted, all works on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. Copyright © 2005-2009 TS-Si, Inc. Some rights reserved.