wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (12/10/84)
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
gam@amdahl.UUCP (Gordon A. Moffett) (12/12/84)
> = T. C. Wheeler > 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.... > > It seemed like an interesting theory and the studies seem to > show a leaning in that direction. Anyone care to comment? I saw it too. Actually the narrator said that this study was "highly controversial" but I'm sure any such study would be. I am under the impression that the fraction of homosexuals in the human population is fairly constant. Certainly fluctuations could occur from time to time, but if the population is constant over the long term, the cause must be fairly common and evenly distributed -- or perhaps even innate to species. If stress such as what German women would have been experienceing in WWII is a significant factor in ``innate'' homosexuality, how does this correlate with the constancy of the proportion of homosexual. Can someone confirm or refute my assumtion about the constancy of human homosexual populations? -- Gordon A. Moffett ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,amd,sun}!amdahl!gam 37 22'50" N / 121 59'12" W [ This is just me talking. ]