Sex and gender differences 2

Question 1

Changes in reproductive behaviour are tightly correlated with what?

Answer 1

Changes in hormonal secretion

Question 2

Describe the findings in guinea pigs of organising and activating effects of hormone

Answer 2

Guinea pigs were exposed to testosterone prenatally, and then failed to show female sexual behavior as adults. However, unlike control animals) they responded to adult treatment with testosterone by showing male sexual behavior

Question 3

What is congenital adrenal hyperplasia?

Answer 3

An inherited recessive condition in which a loss of an enzyme in the pathway for aldosterone synthesis (typically 21-⍺-hydroxylase) leads to excess androgen production by the adrenal gland during foetal development. It has relatively small effects on boys, but leads to physical masculinisation (‘virilisation’) in girls and is also related to toy preference.

Question 4

What 5 things have been found to have large or very large sex differences?

Answer 4

Weapon use, violent crime, homicide and violent computer-game use, and also in rape

Question 5

Darwin (1871) suggested that competition between males for access to mates leads to…

Answer 5

sex differences in size, strength and aggressive behaviour

Question 6

In a study of traders, high testosterone at 11.00h predicted what?

Answer 6

Greater profitability for the rest of the day

Question 7

What two things are important in the development of the pair bond in prairie voles?

Answer 7

Oxytocin and vasopressin

Question 8

Adding vasopressin receptors to the meadow vole brain increases the tendency to what?

Answer 8

form a pair bond

Question 9

What do the great apes comprise of?

Answer 9

Gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, humans

Question 10

What does Frans de Waal (in Different, 2022) argue?

Answer 10

He argues that apes (including humans) have a long evolutionary history of successful group living and have developed cognitive abilities that facilitate it.

Question 11

What does Hardy (2020) argue?
C____ breeding in p____, including h____, promotes s____ t____ and p____ s____

Answer 11

cooperative breeding in primates, including humans, promotes social tolerance and proactive sociality.

Question 12

What is one cognitive task in which males have an advantage?

Answer 12

Mental rotation

Question 13

how do Men with more sensitive androgen receptors, due to fewer CAG repeats in the gene for the receptor do on the virtual water maze task?

Answer 13

make fewer errors on the virtual water maze if their T level is relatively low1. Consistent with optimum T level theory proposed earlier.

Question 14

Brennan et al (2021) measured structural features in 8325 9-10 year olds across 21 sites in USA. Which areas of the brain were differences most concentrated in between males and females?

Answer 14

limbic and somatosensory areas

Question 15

What regions were male and female brain differences most pronounced in using fMRIs?

Answer 15

DMN and additional stratal and limbic regions

Question 16

Baron-Cohen et al (2005) suggest that autism and ASD can be understood in terms of the tendency to what?

Answer 16

Systemise (male-typical) or empathise (female-typical):
Sytematise; to understand a system, or others behaviour, in terms of rules.
Empathise; to understand a system, or others behaviour, by identifying mental states and responding with an appropriate emotion.

Question 17

Based on the potential oxytocin/empathy connection, human trials of an intra-nasal oxytocin spray are underway. But what are two obvious problems?

Answer 17

1. Heterogeneity in ASD – oxytocin may only be effective in subgroups.
2. Epigenetic changes in early development may lead to decreased oxytocin receptor function.