Recently I got into a debate with someone in cyberspace about the biological differences between the brains of men & women, during which I made what I thought was a pretty safe statement by saying studies show there are innate differences in place in the structure of male & female brains even while still in the womb. I was asked, with some annoyance, what studies?
So, in response, I put together a list of studies & scientific papers relating to differences most specifically between the brain structure & function of males & females, but also a few that are related to the wider question of innate sex differences. There were obviously many more I could have included but kept with the ones that most clearly referred to this specific issue & whose titles made plain their position.
I reproduce it here as it may be found useful to others in similar situations.
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Arnold, A. P. (2004). "Sex chromosomes and brain gender." Nat Rev Neurosci 5 (9): 701-8.
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Bachevalier, J., C. Hagger, et al. (1989). "Gender differences in visual habit formation in 3-month-old rhesus monkeys." Dev Psychobiol 22 (6): 585-99.
Baron-Cohen, S., R. C. Knickmeyer, et al. (2005). "Sex differences in the brain: Implications for explaining autism." Science 310 (5749): 819-23.
Bayliss, A. P., G. di Pellegrino, et al. (2005). "Sex differences in eye gaze and symbolic cueing of attention." Q J Exp Psychol A 58 (4): 631-50.
Berkley, K. (2002). "Pain: Sex/Gender differences." In Hormones, Brain and Behavior, ed. D. W. Pfaff, vol. 5, 409-42. San Diego: Academic Press.
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Buss, D. M. (1995). "Psychological sex differences. Origins through sexual selection." Am Psychol 50 (3): 164-68; discussion 169-71.
Canli, T., J. E. Desmond, et al. (2002). "Sex differences in the neural basis of emotional memories." Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99 (16): 10789-94.
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Collaer, M. L., and M. Hines (1995). "Human behavioral sex differences: A role for gonadal hormones during early development?" Psychol Bull 118 (1): 55-107.
Derbyshire, S. W., T. E. Nichols, et al. (2002). "Gender differences in patterns of cerebral activation during equal experience of painful laser stimulation." J Pain 3 (5): 401-11.
DeVries, G. J. (1999). "Brain sexual dimorphism and sex differences in parental and other social behaviors." In C. S. Carter, I. I. Lederhendler, and B. Kirkpatrick,
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Dluzen, D. E. (2005). "Estrogen, testosterone, and gender differences." Endocrine 27 (3): 259-68.
Fernandez-Guasti, A., F. P. Kruijver, et al. (2000). "Sex differences in the distribution of androgen receptors in the human hypothalamus." J Comp Neurol 425 (3): 422-35.
Giedd, J. N., F. X. Castellanos, et al. (1997). "Sexual dimorphism of the developing human brain." Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 21 (8):1185-201.
Gizewski, E. R., E. Krause, et al. (2006). "Gender-specific cerebral activation during cognitive tasks using functional MRI: Comparison of women in midluteal phase and men." Neuroradiology 48 (1): 14-20.
Goldstein, J. M., M. Jerram, et al. (2005). "Sex differences in prefrontal cortical brain activity during FMRI of auditory verbal working memory." Neuropsychology 19 (4): 509-19.
Goldstein, J. M., L. J. Seidman, et al. (2001). "Normal sexual dimorphism of the adult human brain assessed by in vivo magnetic resonance imaging." Cereb Cortex 11 (6): 490-97.
Gur, R. C., F. Gunning-Dixon, et al. (2002). "Sex differences in temporo-limbic and frontal brain volumes of healthy adults." Cereb Cortex 12 (9): 998-1003.
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Halari, R., M. Hines, et al. (2005). "Sex differences and individual differences in cognitive performance and their relationship to endogenous gonadal hormones and gonadotropins." Behav Neurosci 119 (1): 104-17.
Halari, R., and V. Kumari (2005). "Comparable cortical activation with inferior performance in women during a novel cognitive inhibition task." Behav Brain Res 158 (1): 167-73.
Halari, R., T. Sharma, et al. (2006). "Comparable fMRI activity with differential behavioural performance on mental rotation and overt verbal fluency tasks in healthy men and women." Exp Brain Res 169 (1): 1-14.
Hines, M. (2002). "Sexual differentiation of human brain and behavior." In Hormones, Brain and Behavior, ed. D. W. Pfaff, vol. 4, 425-62. San Diego: Academic Press.
Hines, M., S. F. Ahmed, et al. (2003). "Psychological outcomes and genderrelated development in complete androgen insensitivity syndrome." Arch Sex Behav 32 (2): 93-101.
Hines, M., C. Brook, et al. (2004). "Androgen and psychosexual development: Core gender identity, sexual orientation and recalled childhood gender role behavior in women and men with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH)." J Sex Res 41 (1): 75-81.
Hines, M., and F. R. Kaufman (1994). "Androgen and the development of human sex-typical behavior: Rough-and-tumble play and sex of preferred playmates in children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH)." Child Dev 65 (4): 1042-53.
Hittelman, J. H. (1979). "Sex differences in neonatal eye contact time." Merrill-Palmer Q 25:171-84.
Jausovec, N., and K. Jausovec (2005). "Sex differences in brain activity related to general and emotional intelligence." Brain Cogn 59 (3): 277-86.
Jordan, K., T. Wustenberg, et al. (2002). "Women and men exhibit different cortical activation patterns during mental rotation tasks." Neuropsychologia 40 (13): 2397-408.
Knaus, T. A., A. M. Bollich, et al. (2004). "Sex-linked differences in the anatomy of the perisylvian language cortex: A volumetric MRI study of gray matter volumes." Neuropsychology 18 (4): 738-47.
Kruijver, F. P., A. Fernandez-Guasti, et al. (2001). "Sex differences in androgen receptors of the human mamillary bodies are related to endocrine status rather than to sexual orientation or transsexuality." J Clin Endocrinol Metab 86 (2): 818-27.
Lee, T. M., H. L. Liu, et al. (2002). "Gender differences in neural correlates of recognition of happy and sad faces in humans assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging." Neurosci Lett 333 (1): 131-36.
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Li, C. S., T. R. Kosten, et al. (2005). "Sex differences in brain activation during stress imagery in abstinent cocaine users: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study." Biol Psychiatry 57 (5): 487-94.
Li, H., S. Pin, et al. (2005). "Sex differences in cell death." Ann Neurol 58 (2): 317-21.
Li, Z. J., H. Matsuda, et al. (2004). "Gender difference in brain perfusion 99mTc- ECD SPECT in aged healthy volunteers after correction for partial volume effects." Nucl Med Commun 25 (10): 999-1005.
McClure, E. B. (2000). "A meta-analytic review of sex differences in facial expression processing and their development in infants, children, and adolescents." Psychol Bull 126 (3): 424-53.
McClure, E. B., C. S. Monk, et al. (2004). "A developmental examination of gender differences in brain engagement during evaluation of threat." Biol Psychiatry 55 (11): 1047-55.
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