Surprising Science — March 27, 2011

Do Brain Chemicals Determine Sexual Preference?

Scientists report in a new study that a male mouse’s desire to mate with either a male or a female is determined by the brain chemical serotonin, which regulates other sexual behaviors.

bigthinkeditor

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Serotonin regulates sexual behavior in both mice and men. “Neuroscientist Yi Rao of Peking University and the National Institute of Biological Sciences in Beijing, and his collaborators have now shown that serotonin also underlies a male’s decision to woo a female or another male. They published their results in the March 24 issue of the journal Nature. Rao and his team genetically engineered male mice to lack either serotonin-producing neurons or a protein that is crucial for making serotonin in the brain. Both types of altered mouse couldn’t make serotonin.”

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

three blue - blue - blue - blue - blue - blue - blue - blue - blue - blue .

Health

Sex, immunity, and the brain

Boys are four times as likely as girls to develop autism. Girls are nearly twice as likely to experience depression. The immune system may be a player in these and other brain-health disparities.

Neuropsych

Scientists haven’t found any major differences between women’s and men’s brains

Are there innate differences between female and male brains?

Mind & Brain

Your stress likely changes the brains of those around you

A new study published in Nature Neuroscience shows that stress changes the structure of mouse brains—in partners who did not experience stress.

Infographic illustrating three steps to measure the Hubble Constant, showing Cepheid variable stars, supernovae, and galaxies at increasing distances with redshifted light—highlighting how these methods reveal that the hubble tension is real.

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Is the Hubble tension a real problem?

Is the Universe’s expansion rate 67 km/s/Mpc, 73 km/s/Mpc, or somewhere in between? The Hubble tension is real and not so easy to resolve.

Book cover of "The Gift of Not Belonging" by Rami Kaminski, MD, featuring five birds on a branch and the subtitle “How outsiders and otroverts thrive in a world of joiners.”.

Big Think Books

“Otroverts” and why nonconformists often see what others can’t

In “The Gift of Not Belonging,” Rami Kaminski explains why group consensus may hinder the original thinkers who help advance society.

Up Next

Surprising Science

How Smells Affect the Brain

Researchers studying the most ancient yet least understood of the five senses—smell—have discovered a previously unknown step in how odors are detected and processed by the brain.