Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyPosts Tagged As: Left-handedness
November 27th, 2007
Previous studies have shown that gay men and gay women were 39% more likely to be left-handed. Now a new study from Anthony Bogaert released in Neuropsychology shows higher rates of extreme right-handedness in gay men.
Unlike previous studies, which have only observed an increased rate of non-right-handedness in gay or bisexual men relative to heterosexual men, an elevated rate of extreme right-handedness was found in gay or bisexual men relative to heterosexual men.
Bogaert is also the researcher who identified a correlation between the number of older brothers and gay men. In his new study he also looks for this correlate and finds that it holds true only for those who do not have atypical handedness.
Specifically, older brothers increase the odds of being gay or bisexual in moderate right-handers only; in both non-right-handers and extreme right-handers, older brothers do not affect (or decrease) the odds of being gay or bisexual.
Bogaert’s observations are interesting when viewed with those recently released by Sandra Witelson. She noted that “right-handed homosexual men have less marked functional asymmetry compared to right-handed heterosexual men” in the isthmus of the corpus callosum.
Edge Magazine quotes Robert-Jay Green, Executive Director of the Rockway Institute:
“The results of this research suggest there is a biological predisposition to homosexuality among a significant number of gay/bisexual men,” said Green.
“What we don’t know yet is how strong or widespread such biological predisposition is or whether it is a result of genes, maternal hormones during pregnancy, or maternal immune system functioning during conception,” Green added.
November 8th, 2007
As of yet there is no convincing study that can definitely prove that sexual orientation can be fully attributed to biology (genes, hormones, inuterine circumstances) or societal factors (parents, peers, self imaging). Twin studies suggest some genetic impact, but also seem to suggest that gene may not work alone. Studies on other mammals (rams in particular) suggest that brain structure is relevant, but we are humans not sheep and there is some argument that the brain structural differences may be a result rather than cause of sexual attraction/behavior.
However, in recent years there has been a regular stream of studies, all of which seem to support the notion that sexual orientation is heavily influenced by non-voluntary determinants, most of which appear biological in nature. Yet another has appeared in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.
Previous studies have established that left-handedness appears to a greater degree in the male homosexual population than in the male heterosexual population (it also appears among Presidents). Studies have also linked handedness with increased size of an area of the brain, the corpus callosum, particularly the isthmus.
We hypothesized that isthmal area would be greater in homosexual men, even among right handers. Twelve homosexual and ten heterosexual healthy young men, all consistently right-handed, underwent a research-designed magnetic resonance imaging scan. We found that the isthmal area was larger in the homosexual group, adding to the body of findings of structural brain differences between homosexual and heterosexual men.
This led researcher to think that right-handed gay men were less right-handed (“less marked functional asymmetry”) than their straight counterparts.
A logistic regression analysis to predict sexual orientation category correctly classified 21 of the 22 men (96% correct classification) based on area of the callosal isthmus, a left-hand performance measure, water level test score, and a measure of abstraction ability. Our findings indicate that neuroanatomical structure and cognition are associated with sexual orientation in men and support the hypothesis of a neurobiological basis in the origin of sexual orientation.
Past studies have suffered from the problems of exceptions. While “on average” an attribute might be observed to be different between the orientations, the variances were small and many individuals were observed to be on both sides of the observation window. If I am reading this correctly, however, Sandra Witelson and her team may have found a predictive test, a formula, for determining sexual orientation, using MRI and dexterity testing.
However, in Science Daily, Witelson appears to be hesitant to make such a claim:
The size of the corpus callosum is largely inherited suggesting a genetic factor in sexual orientation, said Witelson “Our results do not mean that heredity is destiny but they do indicate that environment is not the only player in the field,” she said.
While this is not a litmus test for sexual orientation, Witelson said this finding could prove to be one additional valuable piece of information for physicians and individuals who are trying to determine their sexual orientation. “Sometimes people aren’t sure of their sexual orientation.”
It will be interesting to see if her 96% correct prediction rate can be replicated in a larger population. Further, it will be interesting to see longitudinal testing to determine if sexual orientation can be predicted early in life.
In any case, this is yet one more study that supports a biological etiology for sexual orientation.
[Hat tip: GoodAsYou.org]
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