Mammals and Birds
The brains of many birds and mammals, including humans, are significantly different for males and females of the species. Both genes and hormones affect the formation of many animal brains before "birth" (or hatching), and also behaviour of adult individuals. Hormones significantly affect human brain formation, and also brain development at puberty. A 2004 review in Nature Reviews Neuroscience observed that "because it is easier to manipulate hormone levels than the expression of sex chromosome genes, the effects of hormones have been studied much more extensively, and are much better understood, than the direct actions in the brain of sex chromosome genes." It concluded that while "the differentiating effects of gonadal secretions seem to be dominant," the existing body of research "support the idea that sex differences in neural expression of X and Y genes significantly contribute to sex differences in brain functions and disease."
Read more about this topic: Sexual Dimorphism
Famous quotes containing the word birds:
“It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of our days and nights without any obstruction between us and the celestial bodies.... Birds do not sing in caves, nor do doves cherish their innocence in dovecots.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)