Sexual Differentiation of the Brain and Behavior: A Primer
Sexual Differentiation of the Brain and Behavior: A Primer
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DOI：
10.1007/978-1-4939-3474-4_141
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发表时间：
2016-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
McCarthy, Margaret M.
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文献类型：
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作者：
Arnold, Arthur P.;McCarthy, Margaret M.
大脑性别分化的一般理论源于20世纪进行的经典实验，该实验表明，睾丸中的雄激素在发育早期起作用，导致男性大脑的某些区域发育不同于女性。大脑结构和功能的进一步性别差异也是由生命后期睾丸和卵巢的性激素影响引起的。此外，X和Y染色体上的性染色体基因在女性和男性大脑中的表达天生不同，导致了它们的不同。性激素通过调节细胞死亡和出生，导致神经元数量的性别差异，从而在大脑功能上造成特定的性别差异。性激素还调节树突的长度和专用于特定任务的突触数量。性激素引起表观遗传变化，对大量分子途径产生广泛影响。一个普遍的原则是，导致性别差异的细胞和分子机制是高度不同的，在每个特定的大脑区域都是不同的。此外，在人类中，性别环境的影响与多种生物因素相互作用，产生的大脑不一定是一致的男性或女性，而是每个人独特的混合体。
A general theory of sexual differentiation of the brain derives from classic experiments performed in the twentieth century, which showed that androgens from the testes act early in the development to cause some regions of the male's brain to develop differently from those in the female. Further sex differences in brain structure and function are induced also by the effects of sex hormones from both the testes and ovaries later in life. In addition, sex chromosome genes on the X and Y chromosome are expressed inherently differently in female and male brains and cause them to be different. The sex hormones create specific sex differences in brain function by regulating cell death and birth leading to sex differences in the number of neurons. Sex hormones also regulate the length of dendrites and number of synapses devoted to specific tasks. Sex hormones cause epigenetic changes with broad impact on a large number of molecular pathways. A general principle is that cellular and molecular mechanisms leading to sex differences are highly diverse, differing in each specific brain region. Moreover, in humans the effects of gendered environments interact with multiple biological factors to produce brains that are not necessarily uniformly masculine or feminine, but a unique mixture in each individual.