Reframing sexual differentiation of the brain
By Mark I. McCarthy, A. Arnold. Nature Neuroscience, 2011
693 citations recorded by the source corpus.
In the twentieth century, the dominant model of sexual differentiation stated that genetic sex (XX versus XY) causes differentiation of the gonads, which then secrete gonadal hormones that act directly on tissues to induce sex differences in function. This serial model of sexual differentiation was simple, unifying and seductive. Recent evidence, however, indicates that the linear model is incorrect and that sex differences arise in response to diverse sex-specific signals originating from inherent differences in the genome and involve cellular mechanisms that are specific to individual tissues or brain regions. Moreover, sex-specific effects of the environment reciprocally affect biology, sometimes profoundly, and must therefore be integrated into a realistic model of sexual differentiation. A more appropriate model is a parallel-interactive model that encompasses the roles of multiple molecular signals and pathways that differentiate males and females, including synergistic and compensatory interactions among pathways and an important role for the environment.
Subfields: Genetics, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2ea921b481120d75e286238d3de86a2865ee0c98
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Citations in the corpus
- Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal and hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axes: sex differences in regulation of stress responsivity (2017, background): “…the absence of testosterone during a critical perinatal period results in the expression of the default program of the brain, which is female-like (McCarthy & Arnold, 2011), whereas perinatal treatment of females with testosterone will defeminize the brain and prevent the expression of female…”
- Sex Differences in the Brain: The Not So Inconvenient Truth (2012, background): “…as prevalent and anorexia nervosa is a disturbing 13 times more frequent in women (De Vries and Simerly, 2002; Simerly, 2002; Morris et al., 2004; Baron-Cohen et al., 2005; Cahill, 2006; Forger, 2009; McCarthy et al., 2009; Abel et al., 2010; Jazin and Cahill, 2010; McCarthy and Arnold, 2011).”
- The Evolution of Culturally-Variable Sex Differences: Men and Women Are Not Always Different, but When They Are…It Appears Not to Result from Patriarchy or Sex Role Socialization (2015, background): “Other psychological sex differences may result from direct genetic effects in which specific genes outside the sex chromosomes function differently in the brains of men and women (Becker et al. 2007; McCarthy and Arnold 2011; Ngun et al. 2011; Trabzuni et al. 2013).”
- Sexually dimorphic neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamus govern mating in both sexes and aggression in males (2013, neutral): “…influence on vertebrate sex-typical behaviors by controlling sex differences in the brain (Cooke et al., 1998; Dewing et al., 2003; Gagnidze et al., 2010; Jazin and Cahill, 2010; McCarthy and Arnold, 2011; Morris et al., 2004; Simerly, 2002; De Vries, 1990; Xu et al., 2012; Yang et al., 2006).”