GenderBiology.net

Big Gender Differences In Language Learning

SOURCE: Science A Go Go

DATE: November 30, 2006

EXCERPT:  Neuroscientists from Georgetown University Medical Center say that boys and girls use different parts of their brains to process some basic aspects of grammar. Their study ...  suggests that gender is an important factor in the acquisition and use of language."  more

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

Hartshorne JK, Ullman MT. Why girls say 'holded' more than boys. Dev Sci. 2006 Jan;9(1):21-32. 

PTSD diagnosed more in women

SOURCE:  MedlinePlus.gov - HealthDay News

DATE:  November 20, 2006

EXCERPT: Even thoigh men are more likely to experience a traumatic event, women are nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

Tolin DF, Foa EB. Sex differences in trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder: a quantitative review of 25 years of research. Psychol Bull. 2006 Nov;132(6):959-92. PMID: 17073529 [PubMed - in process]

Fighting like a girl or boy determined by gene in fruit flies

SOURCE:  EurekAlert

DATE: November 19, 2006

EXCERPT: Boston, MA -- Fighting like a girl or fighting like a boy is hardwired into fruit fly neurons, according to a study in the Nov. 19 Nature Neuroscience advance online publication by a research team from Harvard Medical School and the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna. The results confirm that a gene known as "fruitless" is a key factor underlying sexual differences in behavior. The findings mark a milestone in an unlikely new animal model for understanding the biology of aggression and how the nervous system gives rise to different behaviors.   more

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

Yurkovic A, Wang O, Basu AC, Kravitz EA. Learning and memory associated with aggression in Drosophila melanogaster. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Nov 14;103(46):17519-17524. Epub 2006 Nov 6.

Duke Researchers Highlight Gender Differences In Heart Failure

SOURCE:  Medical News Today

DATE:  November 16, 2006

EXCERPT: Women tend to live longer with heart failure than do men, and they also tend to have a less severe form of the disease, which is characterized by reduced performance of the heart muscle, according to a study by Duke University Medical Center cardiologists.   more

Fatigue In Women Is Reduced In Stress-Related Cortisol Study

Fatigue In Women Is Reduced In Stress-Related Cortisol Study

SOURCE:  Medical News Today

DATE:  November 16, 2006

EXCERPT: A study of healthy women has harvested results involving fatigue and vigor  .... linked to low levels of the stress hormone cortisol.   That low cortisol levels are found in such maladies as chronic fatigue syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia and atypical depression is not new. However, the study, published in the November issue of Psychophysiology, combined with other findings emerging from a comprehensive project, appear to support the idea that sex hormones tend to separate men from women in their reactions to stress, said Mattie Tops, a postdoctoral research associate in the NeuroInformatics Center at the University of Oregon.   more

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

Tops M, van Peer JM, Wijers AA, Korf J. Acute cortisol administration reduces subjective fatigue in healthy women. Psychophysiology. 2006 Nov;43(6):653-6. 

New Brain-Chemistry Differences Found In Depressed Women

SOURCE:  Medical News Today

DATE:  November 9, 2006

EXCERPT: A new brain study finds major differences between women with serious depression and healthy women in a brain-chemical system that's crucial to stress and emotions.   more

RELATED PUBMED CITATION:

Kennedy SE, Koeppe RA, Young EA, Zubieta JK. Dysregulation of endogenous opioid emotion regulation circuitry in major depression in women. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006 Nov;63(11):1199-208.

Pain follows cycle

SOURCE:  Science News. 170(19):302

DATE:  November 4, 2006

EXCERPT: The rise and fall of estrogen during a female's menstrual cycle may change her perception of pain, according to an experiment on rats.

RELATED LINK:

Amador, N.J., et al. 2006. Estrous cycle effects on behavioral and physiological responses to formalin-induced inflammatory pain (Program#/Poster#: 51.16/M8). Society for Neuroscience meeting. Oct. 14-18. Atlanta. Abstract.