Friday, November 09, 2007

Genetics Has A Role In Determining Sexual Orientation In Men, Further Evidence

As the Box Turtle Bulletin is reporting (http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/), Canadian scientists have uncovered new evidence which shows genetics has a role to play in determining whether an individual is homosexual or heterosexual. The research was conducted by Dr. Sandra Witelson, a neuroscientist in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University, and colleagues at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto who studied the brains of healthy, right-handed, 18- to 35-year-old homosexual and heterosexual men using structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). However, in recent years there has been a regular stream of studies, all of which seem to support the notion that sexual orientation is heavily influenced by non-voluntary determinants, most of which appear biological in nature. Here are someehighlights:
Previous studies have established that left-handedness appears to a greater degree in the male homosexual population than in the male heterosexual population (it also appears among Presidents). Studies have also linked handedness with increased size of an area of the brain, the corpus callosum, particularly the isthmus. We hypothesized that isthmal area would be greater in homosexual men, even among right handers. Twelve homosexual and ten heterosexual healthy young men, all consistently right-handed, underwent a research-designed magnetic resonance imaging scan. We found that the isthmal area was larger in the homosexual group, adding to the body of findings of structural brain differences between homosexual and heterosexual men. This led researcher to think that right-handed gay men were less right-handed (”less marked functional asymmetry”) than their straight counterparts.

A logistic regression analysis to predict sexual orientation category correctly classified 21 of the 22 men (96% correct classification) based on area of the callosal isthmus, a left-hand performance measure, water level test score, and a measure of abstraction ability. Our findings indicate that neuroanatomical structure and cognition are associated with sexual orientation in men and support the hypothesis of a neurobiological basis in the origin of sexual orientation.
I truly look forward to the day when it is conclusively proven that sexual orientation involves no choice whatsoever and the lying Christianists can be called to account for their deliberate, hate-filled lies.

1 comment:

Java said...

This is encouraging news. It sounds like homosexual men are just smarter than heterosexual men.
The danger I have observed is that with studies such as these the wingnut faction misuses the research, causing greater discrimination and related problems for the homosexual community. Hopefully that won't happen with this research.