psychology-health

The hormone known as estradiol is a female hormone, while testosterone is a male hormone. While it would seem obvious that the male hormone would be responsible for the brain to masculinize, it is the estradiol which is responsible for this occurance.

In the womb, the fetus is protected from the effects of testosterone and estradiol by the placenta. If the fetus is female, this would be especially important, otherwise, the female newborn would develop some masculine tendencies.

The hormones, estradiol and testosterone have the same cell structure, so one can convert to the other; this process is known as aromatization (Pinel, 2007, p.343).
The brain of a male fetus has the same number of neurons as a female brain; however, another process proceeds to kill of cells of one gender or the other, ultimately leaving the brain structure of the fetus as female or male. This process is called apoptotic cell death (Pinel, 2007, p.344).

Behavioral studies have been conducted, but largely on laboratory animals. Even so, it was found that the aromatization process where testosterone converts to estradiol is important for the development of masculine behavior. A male fetus’ lack of testosterone exposure can demasulinize and feminize it, while the reverse is also true.

The studies on behavior development are interesting, although the  majority of information derived from  studies does not teach us much about the “the development of gender-related behaviors that are not directly related to reproduction”(Pinel,2007,p.345).

Reference
Pinel, J. P. J. (2007). Basics of biopsychology. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

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