Mind Matters: What neuroscience teaches us about sex

Posted by Dr. Kayta Gajdos on October 17, 2012

Wondering what topic I might choose to write about this week, I perused several books on my shelf. I could have chosen one of the easier reads, but, no, I elected to choose the most complex of the lot. “The Archeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions,” by Jaak Panksepp and Lucy Biven, is a page turner—all 500 of them—that looks at mammalian neuroscientific research to give us an understanding of the human brain and behavior.

Needless to say, my little column here will not summarize all their findings. However, one of the areas of research I found fascinating was about gender differences of what Panksepp and Biven call the “BrainMind” (and “MindBrain” at times for other reasons). Rather than continue the illusion of duality between thought and neurobiology, Panksepp and Biven hope to connote a unity of both with the term “BrainMind.”

Panksepp and Biven are not the first to discuss how the male and female brain systems are different. They note that, while cognitively similar, male and female brains are different on an affective, emotional level. Simply put, the oxytocin hormonal system of females contributes to care and nurture; the vasopressin hormones in males give rise to aggression and competition.

This may sound like science just giving foundation to the old stereotypical notions of male and female. But there is far more to the research that is counterintuitive. That is, there are biological determinants that precipitate a male brain being in a female body and vice versa.

Why? Because the sexual development of the brain and the body of the fetus do not occur along the same hormonal pathways. How does this occur? Possibly by stress experienced by mothers during pregnancy. Stressors might include exposure to environmental pollutants, emotional duress, or hormonal medical treatments. These stressors could interfere with the usual hormonal processes that set gender in the brain. And it is the brain that determines sexual identity. So indeed an individual who physically appears male may identify as female, and vice versa.

A person who feels like a woman in the body of a male, and a person who feels like a man in a woman’s body is the scientific definition of being transgendered, and it usually refers to the setting of sexual identity in the brain “in utero.”

Panksepp and Biven take the findings of science to inform society. They hope that their work can help convince others to accept human differences beyond hatred and prejudice. They give us the facts of nature: most babies will be born typically male or female, brain identities the same as the physical bodies. Yet it is also a fact of nature that some babies are born with female emotional minds and male bodies, and male emotional minds with female bodies.

May scientific research such as Panksepp’s and Biven’s help society to be more open and tolerant by accepting the facts of nature—that sexual identity has many variables and variations.

* Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is in private practice in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She welcomes comments atMindMatters@DrGajdos.com or 610-388-2888. Past columns are posted towww.drgajdos.com.

About Kayta Gajdos

Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.