Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxa.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxa!wetcw From: wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) Newsgroups: net.motss Subject: Hormones and the Brain Message-ID: <1098@pyuxa.UUCP> Date: Mon, 10-Dec-84 15:08:25 EST Article-I.D.: pyuxa.1098 Posted: Mon Dec 10 15:08:25 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 11-Dec-84 04:16:59 EST Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J. Lines: 21 Whilst passing through, I noticed an article by Steve Dyer that posed some questions about homosexuality having its roots in the development of the fetus. A couple of weeks ago, PBS was presenting its series on the brain. There was a short segment about an East German Clinic that was doing studies of homosexual men and there brain patterns. They came up with an interesting correalation between the amount of stress a women went through during pregnancy and homosexuality. All of the men studied had been born during a period when the area had been under heavy bombing during WWII. The preliminary conclusions were that stress in the mother triggered the production of one of the bodies hormones which in turn affected the orientation of the brains left and right hemispheres. I don't remember the normal orientation, but the men seemed to have the same brain orientation (left side larger) as a woman. This could have been due to the release of the hormones, at least as far as the preliminary studies have shown. It seemed like an interesting theory and the studies seem to show a leaning in that direction. Anyone care to comment? T. C. Wheeler