Crossdressers-Haven.com

Just saw on Yahoo about a new study that may shed some light on why we are CDers. The study applies to Gays but reading it, I can see it also applies to us.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080616/lf_ ... ain_gay_dc

This really makes sense to me.For as long as I can remember(6or7 years old)I have felt like this.I have always believed I was born like this.I hope the studies continue,I would still like an answer to the why question although its not as important as it used to be.

The point being it is possible that given the total complexity of the human, it is possible that something during the "gestation period" gave us this gift!
As to the nurture part of it, that just basically reinforced either positively or unfortunately, negatively that aspect of our development. Knowing we have this "gift" it becomes the nuture aspect that "closets" some of us or as I am most fond of saying, "Here stands Virginia, what do you think!?"

Jennifer, I am proud of you! No it is not so important is it!?

Virginia

Hi. I looked up the source for the news article, but sadly, you have to be a member or at least do a one time subscription to down load a paper from the Procedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But I did get access to the abstract. It left me a bit confused.

In its opening sentence the authors make referrence to a couple of studies sorta up dating the work of Zucker and his mentor using penis strain guages, to determine sexual response (and diagnose homosexuals) by showing various somewhat smutty pictures. These new experiments used "magnetic resonance volumetry of cerebral and cerebellar hemispheres... and...... PET measurements of cerebral blood flow, used for analyses of functional connections from the right and left amygdalae".

Adequate sample sizes were used in each of the tests for small sample statistics. The "study shows sex-atypical cerebral asymmetry and functional connections in homosexual subjects." i.e., the homosexual men reacted as straight women, and lesbians reacted as straight men. "The results cannot be primarily ascribed to learned effects, and they suggest a linkage to neurobiological entities."

I am not sure of the efficacy of that techique, as it has been shown that many people react with evidence of arousal to situations quite as much as to physical and pheremone stimulation. If the situation shown stimulates a favorite fantasy that they would really never act upon, , for example, the result could be a false positive. False positives have resulted, but if they used subject self identification it might be ok. Then their sample is better sorted and but their results still could be skewed. Hmmmm, guess I will have to waid 6 months for the journal to be published on line. Or kiss 10 hard earned bucks goodbye, one or the other.

Oh well, maybe wait an issue to get the letters about it.

Love, Carolynn

Well, I stand corrected on my assumptions on the technique followed!

News that a neuroimaging study has found that the brains of gay participants more closely resemble those of their straight, opposite sex counterparts is being widely reported, but one of the most interesting details is largely being ignored.

The study was completed by neuroscientists Ivanka Savic and Per Lindstrom and had two parts.

The first and most widely reported part compared the brain structure of 25 homosexual men, 25 heterosexual men, 20 homosexual women and 20 heterosexual women.

The punchline is that in a measure of brain symmetry, straight men and gay women were similar, and gay men and straight women were similar.

But this isn't the most interesting part in itself. Structural brain differences between gay and straight participants have been reported before, although this new study was better designed as it included both males and females.

What is most intriguing about this new study is a further investigation assessed amygdala function in each side of the brain. In particular, it looked at the balance of activity between the two hemispheres when the participants were asked just to breath in unscented air.

The study found that straight men and gay women had greater right sided activity, whereas gay men and straight women showed equal activation on both sides. As with the structural comparisons, the measurements from homosexual participants were similar to their straight, opposite sex counterparts.

The reason this new study is interesting is because it found a functional brain difference in a task that was not specifically linked to sex or attraction.

Previous studies have found functional differences in the brains of gay and straight people, but they have tended to use experiments where participants were presented with either sexual images, gender specific faces, or stimuli linked to sexual activity, such as pheromones.

These are interesting findings, but they may be the result of same-sex sexual activity, rather than an explanation for why people seek it out.

If you have experience of sleeping with same-sex partners, it's hardly surprising that you may have a different response to same-sex material.

These new findings were from a neutral task. Now it's possible that lots of same sex experience could affect your brain response to fresh air, but it's highly unlikely.

It is possible, of course, that same-sex experience could alter the function of specific brain circuits which affects even non-sex related tasks, but these results also suggest the possibility that some more general differences in brain organisation are responsible for a number of effects, including sexual orientation.

This last explanation is what the researchers suggest, and it is another clue that sexual orientation is not simply the result of experience.

Of course, it's not definite proof, but it is an interesting and important pointer.

Wow
you did your homework Carolynn

Me I want to be a woman with my wife. Yes I have thought about the homosexual part but find men repulsive sexually. Now possibly a CD man as they would more closely model a female but I have had none to spend time with.

However I am married and cherish that so the opportunity is slim.