Sugar, Spice, and Vomeronasal Organs

Scientists think about biological gender difference the way kids think about candy; it can solve any problem, and you can never get enough of it. And while research published today in the journal Nature may change the way we buy our candy, it probably won’t reduce our fascination with it.

The research, which was carried out by a team from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has discovered that gender differences in the sexual behaviors of mice has less to do with actual differences in brain structure, and more to do with subtle chemical signals. From a prepared release:

The researchers found that female mice whose vomeronasal organs were genetically disabled behaved like males in the throes of courtship, exhibiting behaviors such as mounting, pelvic thrusts, solicitation and the complex ultrasonic vocalization characteristic of the male mouse. Correspondingly, female traits such as nursing behaviors and maternal aggression were diminished.

The findings provide strong evidence that male sexual behavior is hard wired into the female mouse brain and suggests, more broadly, that male and female courtship behaviors exist in the brains of both sexes and are switched on or off by the chemical cues mice use to initiate sex.

The research doesn’t apply to human behavior. We don’t have vomeronasal organs, and besides what human do you know that can engage in “complex ultrasonic vocalization” before having sex. But it offers a completely different way of conceptualizing gender differences, and while I wish we’d all find a more interesting construct on which to base our collective unconscious neuroses, I’ll take any opportunity to make our obsession a little more nuanced.

Read more - Disabling a Sensory Organ Prompts Female Mice to Act Like Male Mice (watch a video of the female mice in action)

Related – Sexual Science

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