Brain Differentiation
In most animals, differences of exposure of a fetal or infant brain to sex hormones produce significant differences of brain structure and function which correlate with adult reproductive behavior. This seems to be the case in humans as well; sex hormone levels in male and female fetuses and infants differ, and both androgen receptors and estrogen receptors have been identified in brains. Several sex-specific genes not dependent on sex steroids are expressed differently in male and female human brains. Structural sex differences begin to be recognizable by 2 years of age, and in adult men and women include size and shape of corpus callosum and certain hypothalamic nuclei, and the gonadotropin feedback response to estradiol.
Read more about this topic: Sexual Differentiation
Famous quotes containing the word brain:
“My brain is dull, my sight is foul,
I cannot write a verse, or read—
Then, Pallas, take away thine Owl,
And let us have a lark instead.”
—Thomas Hood (1799–1845)