Sex And The Brain

Go beyond the headlines and the hype to get the newest findings in the burgeoning field of gender studies. Drawing on disciplines that include evolutionary science, anthropology, animal behavior, neuroscience, psychology, and endocrinology, Deborah Blum explores matters ranging from the link between immunology and sex to male/female gossip styles. The results are intriguing, startling, and often very amusing. For instance, did you know that. . . • Male testosterone levels drop in happy marriages; scientists speculate that women may use monogamy to control male behavior • Young female children who are in day-care are apt to be more secure than those kept at home; young male children less so • Anthropologists classify Western societies as "mildly polygamous" The Los Angeles Times has called Sex on the Brain "superbly crafted science writing, graced by unusual compassion, wit, and intelligence, that forms an important addition to the literature of gender studies."

What controls our sex lives? Our brains. Yet there is surprisingly little research into how our brains influence one of the most fundamental of all human behaviors. And there is even less understanding of what can happen to the sexuality of a person who suffers a brain injury or illness such as a stroke, Parkinson’s disease, or dementia. In Sex in the Brain, clinical neuropsychologist Amee Baird explores fascinating case studies of dramatic changes in sexual behavior and explains what these exceptional stories have to say about human sexuality. She illuminates the extraordinary insights into how the brain works that injury or disease can divulge. Each chapter includes striking personal accounts, many from individuals Baird has met in her clinical practice, of unexpected shifts in sexuality. Until now these fascinating, frightening, and funny stories have been hidden in medical journals or untold outside of the clinical setting. This revealing and sometimes heartbreaking book unfolds a better understanding of the links between brain function and our sexual selves.

A collection of foundational texts on the nature and behavioral consequences of sex differences in the brain, allowing readers to follow the development of a rapidly growing but contentious field and giving them the tools to analyze emerging scientific findings from many perspectives. This collection of foundational papers on sex differences in the brain traces the development of a much-invoked, fast-growing young field at the intersection of brain and behavior. The reader is introduced to the meaning and nature of sexual dimorphisms, the mechanisms and consequences of steroid hormone action, and the impact of the field on interpretations of sexuality and gender. Building on each other in point-counterpoint fashion, the papers tell a fascinating story of an emerging science working out its core assumptions. Experimental and theoretical papers, woven together by editor's introductions, open a window onto knowledge in the making and a vigorous debate between reductionist and pluralist interpreters. Five major sections include papers on conceptual and methodological background, central nervous system dimorphisms, mechanisms for creating dimorphisms, dimorphisms and cognition, and dimorphisms and identity. Each section builds from basic concepts to early experiments, from experimental models to humans, and from molecules to mind. Papers by such leading scholars as Arthur Arnold, Frank Beach, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Patricia Goldman-Rakic, Doreen Kimura, Simon LeVay, Bruce McEwen, Michael Merzenich, Bertram O'Malley, Geoffrey Raisman, and Dick Swaab, illustrate a rich blend of perspectives, approaches, methods, and findings. Sex and the Brain will show students how a scientific paper can be analyzed from many perspectives, and supply them with critical tools for judging a rapidly emerging science in a contentious area.

The relationship between the human brain and sexuality analyzes the roots and causes of male and female sexual behavior, abilities, pleasures, and skills and discusses the nature of gender

Who do we love? Who loves us? And why? Is love really a mystery, or can neuroscience offer some answers to these age-old questions? In her third enthralling book about the brain, Judith Horstman takes us on a lively tour of our most important sex and love organ and the whole smorgasbord of our many kinds of love-from the bonding of parent and child to the passion of erotic love, the affectionate love of companionship, the role of animals in our lives, and the love of God. Drawing on the latest neuroscience, she explores why and how we are born to love-how we're hardwired to crave the companionship of others, and how very badly things can go without love. Among the findings: parental love makes our brain bigger, sex and orgasm make it healthier, social isolation makes it miserable-and although the craving for romantic love can be described as an addiction, friendship may actually be the most important loving relationship of your life. Based on recent studies and articles culled from the prestigious Scientific American and Scientific American Mind magazines, The Scientific American Book of Love, Sex, and the Brain offers a fascinating look at how the brain controls our loving relationships, most intimate moments, and our deep and basic need for connection.

Female and male brains are different, thanks to hormones coursing through the brain before birth. That’s taught as fact in psychology textbooks, academic journals, and bestselling books. And these hardwired differences explain everything from sexual orientation to gender identity, to why there aren’t more women physicists or more stay-at-home dads. In this compelling book, Rebecca Jordan-Young takes on the evidence that sex differences are hardwired into the brain. Analyzing virtually all published research that supports the claims of “human brain organization theory,” Jordan-Young reveals how often these studies fail the standards of science. Even if careful researchers point out the limits of their own studies, other researchers and journalists can easily ignore them because brain organization theory just sounds so right. But if a series of methodological weaknesses, questionable assumptions, inconsistent definitions, and enormous gaps between ambiguous findings and grand conclusions have accumulated through the years, then science isn’t scientific at all. Elegantly written, this book argues passionately that the analysis of gender differences deserves far more rigorous, biologically sophisticated science. “The evidence for hormonal sex differentiation of the human brain better resembles a hodge-podge pile than a solid structure...Once we have cleared the rubble, we can begin to build newer, more scientific stories about human development.”

What is your best tool for achieving the ultimate sexual pleasure? Your brain! Everyone wants to know how to improve his or her love life, but so few of us understand the integral role the brain plays in getting us in the mood, keeping us excited about our partner, and helping us achieve greater satisfaction. Based on Dr. Daniel Amen’s cutting-edge research in practical neuroscience, Sex on the Brain shares twelve lessons that help you enhance your love and sex lives through understanding and improving brain function. Filled with practical suggestions and information on how to have better sex, Sex on the Brain reveals: • How the differences between men’s and women’s brains affect our perceptions and interest in sex • The science behind why breakups hurt so much, and what you can do to ease the pain • Surefire techniques to fix common problems–depression, PMS, ADD–that get in the way of good sex • How to tap into your senses–taste, touch, smell–and find “the spot” • How sex can save your life Sex on the Brain explains everything there is to know about the brain in love and lust, and shows you how to create a hot, healthy, and happy sex life.