The Cerebral Nature of Sexual Orientation

Preamble: Unusually in this blog I have directly linked to my references within the text rather than provide separate source material. The rights of the publishers of the information reference are fully acknowledged and respected.

Sexuality and Beliefs

The matter of sexuality and sexual orientation causes all sorts of discourse from intelligent and understanding to prejudiced and bigoted.

Different religions find all sorts of political advantage in being able to trot out some verse, creed, rule, law or doctrine that galvanises their supposedly just and holy right to castigate and condemn, effectively excluding others from their following.

It is interesting however to see how advances in knowledge, science and medicine have remedied heretofore abominable and somewhat incurable conditions which called for separation, ostracism or even judgement by reason of the fact that those things were not understood to any objective detail at those times.

Knowledge debunking fallacies

The clash of the ancient and modern still persists as ancient morals are used to constrain modern thinking even as science helps explain in quantifiable, qualitative and empirical research, those things that the ancients killed outliers for and just a few centuries ago religious leaders excommunicated thinkers for logically challenging the basis of long-held beliefs bordering on fallacy that engendered the preponderance of corrupt ruling classes.

Anengiyefa on his Things I feel strong about blog references one such study, following the links and references gets us to an article in Medical News Today titled Homo Or Hetero? The Neurobiological Dimension Of Sexual Orientation.

Dr. Jerome Goldstein at 21st Meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS) in Lisbon states, “Sexual orientation is not a matter of choice, it is primarily neurobiological at birth, there are undeniable links. We want to make them visible to the eye.”

Difference in the brains

He goes on to say, “Using volumetric studies, there have been findings of significant cerebral amygdala size differences between homosexual and heterosexual subjects. Sex dimorphic connections were found among homosexual participants in these studies.”

The last paragraph is almost inscrutable but it suggests that the parts of the brain have a primary role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions.

From a medical perspective Dr. Goldstein refers to a 2008 work of Dr. Ivanka Savic-Berglund and Dr. Per Lindström of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden where using MRI and PET scans they found differences in cerebral asymmetry and functional connectivity between homo- and heterosexual subjects. [Abstract][Full PDF]

It is nature not nurture

However, science has an uphill task against religion and preconceptions where many believe sexual orientation is determined by nurture and not by nature, but then there was a time when the earth was considered flat until someone dared to circumnavigate the world.

Interestingly, these kinds of studies of neurological differences go back as far as 1992 in one titled, Sexual orientation and the size of the anterior commissure in the human brain [Full PDF] where the findings suggested The midsagittal plane (a vertical plane through the midline of the body; divides the body into right and left halves) of the anterior commissure (a bundle of nerve fibres – white matter; connecting the two cerebral hemispheres across the midline, and placed in front of the columns of the fornix) in homosexual men was 18% larger than in heterosexual women and 34% larger than in heterosexual men.

Religious cranial surgery?

Considering these significant differences it becomes rather interesting when aversion therapies and ex-gay movements are portending to change the structure of the brain as science now makes evident such that their stated intent is to change homosexuals into heterosexuals on the premise that homosexuals have made a lifestyle choice is false, atrocious and mendacious at best.

I’ll rather trust a neurosurgeon with a scalpel to my head than have some religionist attempt to surgically rearrange my white and grey matter through suspect methods completely ignorant and oblivious of the physical structure and workings of the brain. We might well call in the brain whisperer.

Neuroscience or difficult conformity

Unfortunately, societal mores buttressed by fundamentalist religious attitudes fuels homophobic propaganda and whilst it is probably easier in certain societies to naturally espouse your sexuality and identity, it remains troublesome in other seemingly conservative and impressionably strident societies that people will rather conform to a double-life of public heterosexuality and secret satisfaction of the natural homosexual trait.

Dr. Goldstein concludes, “Neuroscience has much to offer in the area of understanding the origins of all variations of sexual orientation. The neurobiology of sexual orientation and the gay brain, matched with other hormonal, genetic, and structural studies, has far-reaching consequences beyond sexual orientation.”

An update on a place called church

A chronicler of the times

Sometimes, it appears life rolls along in front of you like a film, memories morph into the reality of today; such is the lot of the chronicler.

Inadvertently, I find that I am not a participant in many things but I talk about these many things like someone called to record those events lest they be lost to posterity under the impression of them being irrelevant or mundane.

Waking up this morning, I decided to catch up with a past that would be so differently represented in the present. I went to church and did I need an update on what happens in that place.

The brain serves a function

Of recent, I had become anti-religious, a debunker of bizarre beliefs which the adherents purport to be part of some faith they had acquired somewhere. What riled me most was the suspension of intellect that accompanies deep religious attachment on the part of some – our brains are there for a reason and especially when it comes to matters spiritual it needs to be at its most efficient to ensure one does not absorb error like a sponge.

That means one needs to reconcile that has been heard and preached with proper study of the texts to ensure that they correlate, being religious is something for the scholar not the dullard.

Above all, my view is religion is to serve humanity and anywhere humanity is sacrificed to creed, doctrine, tradition or custom; religion loses its significance on the premise that it was made for man and not man for religion.

The people that make church

Anyway, my visit was encapsulated in the humanity of meeting up with the man who some 7 years ago was courting, for whom we prayed that they receive favour for a house and they ended up with the choice of four and in whose wedding video I appear regaled in African garments dancing most probably as an embarrassing middle-aged dancer.

I thought I recognised him, a brain scan would have shown my cranial computer riffling at breakneck speed through the facial recognition database that needs a good indexing facility and finally, it all clicked but the name.

The chains of recognition began rebuilding themselves, to wife, to in-laws, to friends and to other relationships, then probing questions hoping the answers would not represent a challenging response.

I was doing well and then his wife came by, we exchanged profound pleasantries and by the time I knew it, I was about to say hello to their son who is almost five. Yes.

Finding some significance

As I spoke to the assistant pastor, I remembered I first attended that church some 8 years ago, it has always been a welcoming place from the people through the message and the atmosphere of continually connecting with each other, it is a family setting to which bachelors like me can be a very glaring sore thumb.

It could be rather difficult to find ones place, but I can see the changes, young men and ladies of yore now parents with responsibilities and children, people who had moved on or passed on, people who have returned after a sojourn somewhere else realising that this church offers more fulfilment in many ways than one can clearly tell about.

It is about people always

The pastor who had built this community has been in ministry for 18 years without break, he and his family are taking a sabbatical of renewal, as one should and they are in my prayers because they have been a very compassionate family to me, in many difficult times and other wonderful times.

I saw very few old faces but it was nice to know that one who I had thought might not have made it through a very serious illness years ago thrives just as I sadly remembered one of whom I was told on my last visit just about a year ago did not.

Above all, church is about people and God amongst his people, sometimes, one does need an update on proceedings at a place called church.

Using the brains of people on anti-malarial drugs

The ecstatic measures for reliving trauma

I was reading in the bumper Christmas edition of the Economist [1] that Ecstasy [2] (methylenedioxymethamphetamine or MDMA) is being used to treat Posttraumatic Stress Disorder [3] (PTSD).

Generally, the idea is that people suffering from the disorder under therapy probably have to recollect and go over the causative issues; Ecstasy supposedly suppresses the effects of going over the experiences, hence helping in the amelioration of the disorder towards recovery.

Anti-malarial woes

In conversation with my dad yesterday, I learnt that he had just recovered from a bout of malaria which seemed to have knocked him out for days.

However, in our shared experiences with malaria, the chat moved to the use of anti-malarial drugs the most common type being Chloroquine [4] -based compounds. Nivaquine [5], a trademark drug was probably the bitterest thing I had ever tasted on earth but until I was 10 years old, I did not have any contra-indications to the drug.

My father never had side-effects to the drug but my mother was a classic case of where the doctor should sometimes listen to the patient – she did say she could not tolerate Chloroquine but in his bedside manner prescribed the drug with some other palliative drug to deal with the preconceived side-effects.

Within hours, my mum was in a critical allergic state, all swollen and bloated, the doctor had to call on some reserves of deep knowledge to sort the problem out.

Brain affects from side effects

By the time I was 11, each time I took Nivaquine, my soles and palms itched relentlessly, I could have sworn it was better to suffer pain than to be sentenced to the itch, with time this was treated with an antihistamine until an alternative drug was available for prescription.

This was Fansidar [6] but it came with its own side effects that when I did self-medicate in Nigeria, I took my anti-malarials with an analgesic to manage the headaches, an anti-histamine to manage the itch and a sedative to get some sleep.

The common side-effect experience I shared with my dad was that these drugs increase brain activity to the extent that one is unable to sleep.

My brain began the complex geometric analysis of lines and their relationships in 3-dimensional space; the capacity for the management of that information was just phenomenal. My dad found that he was managing sectors of circles usually up to 30 sectors and rearranging these sectors whilst fitting polygons in the available spaces.

We both wished the brain activity were devoted to some activity aligned to the work we do which might then be of some serious benefit.

Meanwhile, another good friend I spoke to yesterday had just returned home from Nigeria and was also knocked out by malaria but it seemed what it did the most was realign his body-clock such that he became a diurnal sleeper rather than the normal nocturnal sleeper.

Using a hyper-active brain for research

Just like in the use of Ecstasy, there should be some benefit to harnessing the brain activity in these side effects. Just as computers are linked up in tandem to solve problems or discover patterns for protein analysis or extraterrestrial intelligence, maybe, just maybe when the brain is enduring this high capacity information manipulation it could be inspired or injected with some intractable problem and all that processing offers amazing and ingenious solutions that sober minds cannot begin to fathom.

Obviously, this is one area of testing that would definitely not work with conventional animal testing and so beyond the ethical issues of the administration of these drugs and the modalities for finding suitable guinea-pigs for this experiment which can be conducted along the lines and strictures of semen or egg donors, there might just be some benefit for mankind.

Bizarre research

The question then becomes whether this area of research should be based in malaria ridden countries where we harness the brain power of recuperating sufferers or it be based in established research centres where people are administered the drug to create the side effects in better managed conditions.

Bizarre as it sounds, I think this is one area of research worth looking at, through the pain and discomfort there might well be a yet undiscovered treasure trove of human ability behind the veil of the therapeutic or the prophylactic management of malaria.

Sources

[1] Agony and ecstasy | Agony and ecstasy | The Economist

[2] Methylenedioxymethamphetamine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] Posttraumatic stress disorder - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] Chloroquine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[5] Nivaquine – netdoctor.co.uk

[6] Fansidar (discontinued in the UK - January 2008)

The rise of the Frankenstein Sugars

Sweet headache

Years ago, I just could not understand why I was having repeated migraines for no seemingly apparent reason, then they all suddenly stopped; on reflection it was when I ran out of chewable Vitamin C tablet supplements.

It all came together when I bought some wafers from a shop and then shared the problem with a friend who had a medical background, he suggested the migraines might be diet related, probably artificial sweeteners.

So, I looked at the container of my Vitamin C supplements, the wrapper on the wafer and a few experiments of consciously taking foods with sweeteners and I nailed the culprit.

Aspartyl-phenylalanine-1-methyl ester

I had never been a fan of diet drinks, so that was easy, however, I had to consciously check foods for sugar-free or low sugar content usually Aspartame marketed under trade names as Equal, Nutrasweet or Canderel and Acesulfame K used in chewing gum, drinks and all kinds of low sugar foods.

In fact, there are a whole group of artificial sweeteners that are hundred of times sweeter than table sugar but of low calorific value, saccharine happens to be the oldest of the lot.

For those who have to contend with sugar related diseases, these sweeteners for taste are a welcome substitute.

The names of these chemical concoctions are coined to instil sheer terror - Aspartyl-phenylalanine-1-methyl ester for Aspartame and the potassium salt of 6-methyl-1,2,3- oxathiazine-4(3H)-one 2,2-dioxide for Acesulfame K - K being the potassium.

Brain tumours from artificial sweetener

However, I got a lot more worried about sweeteners even though I had discontinued ingesting them when I was trying to get an alternative booking to Paris after the Channel Tunnel fire when the travel agent was about to fleece me - the Internet came in handy as I was just as informed as they were on flight information and my rights as they were ABTA bonded.

I did a quick search for ABTA, then Netscape Navigator was the rage and I ended up at the American Brain Tumours Association where a number of studies had suggested a dramatic increase in the incidence of brain tumours since the acceptance of Nutrasweet by the FDA in the American food chain.

As usual with food science, there are claims and counter-claims, it is a minefield of information and one just has to be a bit smart about how to respond to the advice.

I bookmarked that page and refined my search with ABTA Travel, this then took me to the Association of British Travel Agents where I was able to read about my rights and sort out my travel.

The doctors not sweetened

That was in 1996 when the FDA was about to approve Acesulfame K as a sweetener and scientists were against extending the use of the chemical to other foodstuffs; the lobbyists must have sewn it up because it got approved in America and this allowed it to have acceptance all over the world too.

Recently, Dr. Morando Soffritti of the Ramazzini Foundation found that Aspartame which consists of two amino acids and a methanol binding agent - note methanol - caused multiple cancers in rats, however, this has brought the FDA out fighting because of possible culpability allowing what might have been a carcinogenic poison in the food chain.

A few days ago, I read in the online edition of the Daily Mail that Sainsbury's - the third largest supermarket chain in the UK - were taking chemicals out of their brand drinks and other products as more research indicates concerns about the safety of Aspartame and other sweeteners and artificial flavourings.

So the sweet chemical was to be replaced with sucralose - a low calorie sweetener made from sugar - for many people that would be the end of the story, I almost rejoiced.

Frankenstein sugars

Sucralose indeed made from sugar as scientists have found ways of strengthening the potency of sugar to between 350 - 1000 times the strength of table sugar, which makes it better than most other artificial sweeteners - it is marketed under the name of Splenda or generic Altern.

1,6-dichloro-1,6-dideoxy-β-D-fructo-furanosyl 4-chloro-4-deoxy-α-D-galactopyranoside is the chemical name, and it is produced by substituting three of the sucrose hydroxyl groups with chlorine atoms - in layman terms, sugar is chlorinated to create sucralose.

In fact the sweetness is too potent to be used unadulterated that it has to be mixed with Maltodextrin as a packing agent to be used domestically.

However, the concern is about changing the natural state of a naturally occurring substance into a Frankenstein sugar which is a chlorocarbon that bothers medical circles, another source of chlorine is added to the food chain beyond salt and chlorinated water besides the other halogenous compounds of fluorine and iodine that we ingest.

Basically, with insufficient studies and research into the long-term effects of the usage of these chemically enhanced natural substances, we do not have to worry about brain tumours as much as one can now consider organ, genetic and reproductive damage, one wonders if measuring the pain-threshold of sweetener side-effects is the benchmark for approval.

What wellbeing we give up for keeping things sweet.

Looking for smart cookies

Foolish me smartens up

I have been foolish and I have been smart, I would prefer that when I am foolish I realise that in private and lick my wounds in private, learn my lessons and move on. I have learnt not to condemn myself in the things I have allowed.

One is however, not averse to earning praise and accolades for being smart, either in private or in the public eye one learns to receive with humility and give with generosity.

When Albert Einstein died, his brain was removed and studied in 1955 by Dr. Thomas Harvey who then said there was nothing so different about the distinguished mass of gray matter; however, one can understand the interest in trying to find out why Einstein was so smart, a genius. Later studies did however, find out some unique if not distinguishing factors with his brain but that is beside the point.

A specialist neurosurgeon who was recently in the news being a public figure by reason of some high profile positions his wife once held, would have been a perfect candidate to study the brain of Albert Einstein and as a result, produce useful scientific fact about what made the Nobel Laureate a genius.

In what has been become a contrasting of extremes, the Big Brother episode which I wrote about in my last two blogs, the principal there might have been very foolish, if not stupid being illiterate and pig-ignorant but considering what she has made for herself, she has been smart.

Without prejudice, the neurosurgeon that happens to have a doctorate in neurosurgery – what he does not know about brains is probably not worth knowing – is learned, erudite, respected and knowledgeable, but definitely has not been smart, having allowed himself, if true, to be blackmailed many times for making his marital vows a bit trivial.

It begs the question, what does it take to be smart, and when you have been foolish how do you smartly keep that out of view?