Sex Differences in Brain and Behavior

Males and females of many mammalian species, including humans, display differences in physiology and behavior. Research on these differences is revealing how they arise during development, their impact on disease, and the role of hormones.

Written and edited by experts in the field, this collection from Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology summarizes recent progress in this area. It includes contributions covering epigenetic mechanisms in the brain, neuroendocrine responses to stress, and the evolution of reversed sex differences in the behavior of spotted hyenas, as well as studies of how sex differences may affect circadian rhythms, immune disorders, and depression.

The book also examines controversy around research in this area, including assessing bias in interpretation, whether prenatal hormones affect human sexual orientation and gendered behavior, and the dangers of neglecting sex differences when planning experiments or assessing pharmacological treatments. It is thus a vital reference both for biologists in the field and for translational researchers developing therapeutic approaches that may be affected by underlying sex differences.

(Preliminary)

Preface

Integrating Sex Chromosome and Endocrine Theories to Improve Teaching of Sexual Differentiation
Arthur P. Arnold

Sex Differences in Acute Neuroendocrine Responses to Stressors in Rodents and Humans
Robert J. Handa, Julietta A. Sheng, Emily A. Castellanos, Hayley N. Templeton, and Robert F. McGivern

Epigenetic Mechanisms of Brain Sexual Differentiation
Bruno Gegenhuber and Jessica Tollkuhn

Sex Differences in Circadian Rhythms
James C. Walton, Jacob R. Bumgarner, and Randy J. Nelson

Fairly Criticized, or Politicized? Conflicts in the Neuroscience of Sex Differences in the Human Brain
Cordelia Fine

Evidence for Perinatal Steroid Influence on Human Sexual Orientation and Gendered Behavior
Ashlyn Swift-Gallant, Talia Shirazi, David A. Puts, and S. Marc Breedlove

Pervasive Neglect of Sex Differences in Biomedical Research
Irving Zucker, Brian J. Prendergast, and Annaliese K. Beery

Quantifying Sex Differences in Behavior in the Era of “Big” Data
Brian C. Trainor and Annegret L. Falkner

Sex Differences in Mast Cell-Associated Disorders: A Lifespan Perspective
Emily Mackey and Adam J. Moeser

A Brief History of a Male-Specific Neuromuscular Disease
Cynthia L. Jordan

Sex Differences in Spotted Hyenas
S. Kevin McCormick, Kay E. Holekamp, Laura Smale, Mary L. Weldele,
Stephen E. Glickman, and Ned J. Place

Sex Differences in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Preclinical Animal Models for the Study of Depression
Elizabeth S. Williams, and Michelle Mazei-Robison, and A.J. Robison

Index