> Today, I had some very interesting student questions in class:
>
> 1. One student claimed that she heard the cochlea (yes, in the ear) was
> larger and more "man-like" in lesbian women. She admitted that this had
> nothing to do with sexual behavior but that she had heard this. Anyone
> heard of this one?
She may have been referring to the following research which is available online. I
have included the abstract. PNAS back issues are archived at:
http://www.pnas.org/
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
Vol. 95, Issue 5, 2709-2713, March 3, 1998
Psychology-BS Comparison of the auditory systems of heterosexuals and
homosexuals: Click-evoked otoacoustic emissions
Dennis McFadden* and Edward G. Pasanen
Department of Psychology and The Institute for Neuroscience, University of Texas,
Austin, TX 78712
Edited by Ira J. Hirsh, Central Institute for the Deaf, St. Louis, MO, and approved
December 12, 1997 (received for review September 4, 1997)
Click-evoked otoacoustic emissions (CEOAEs) are echo-like waveforms emitted by
normal-hearing cochleas in response to a brief transient. CEOAEs are known to be
stronger in females than in males. In this experiment, the CEOAEs of homosexual and
bisexual females were found to be intermediate to those of heterosexual females and
heterosexual males. A parsimonious explanation is that the auditory systems of
homosexual and bisexual females, and the brain structures responsible for their
sexual orientation, have been partially masculinized by exposure to high levels of
androgens prenatally. No difference in CEOAEs was observed between homosexual
and heterosexual males.
Rick
Dr. Rick Froman
Psychology Department
Box 3055
John Brown University
Siloam Springs, AR 72761
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.jbu.edu/sbs/psych
Office: (501)524-7295
Fax: (501)524-9548
"Happiness is not found by searching, but by researching."
