No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

Re:No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy by Pfhreak on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @04:27PM (#21140421)

Dick Swaab of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience is a pioneer in the neuroscience underlying gender identity. In the mid-1990s, his group examined the postmortem brains of six transgender women and reported that the size of the central subdivision of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTc or BNSTc), a sexually dimorphic area in the forebrain known to be important to sexual behavior, was closer to that of cisgender women than cisgender men.[1] A follow-up study of autopsied brains also found similarities in the number of a certain class of neurons in the BSTc between transgender women and their cisgender counterparts—and between a transgender man and cisgender men.[2] These differences did not appear to be attributable to the influence of endogenous sex hormone fluctuations or hormone treatment in adulthood. In another study published in 2008, Swaab and a coauthor examined the postmortem volume of the INAH3 subnucleus, an area of the hypothalamus previously linked to sexual orientation. The researchers found that this region was about twice as big in cisgender men as in women, whether trans- or cisgender.[3]

[1] J.-N. Zhou et al., “A sex difference in the human brain and its relation to transsexuality,” Nature, 378:68-70, 1995. [2] F.P. Kruijver, “Male-to-female transsexuals have female neuron numbers in a limbic nucleus,” J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 85:2034-41, 2000. [3] A. Garcia-Falgueras, D. Swaab, “A sex difference in the hypothalamic uncinate nucleus: relationship to gender identity,” Brain, 131:3132-46, 2008.

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All of the above is from the first google result and about 30 seconds of searching. https://www.the-scientist.com/features/are-the-brains-of-tra...

So, yeah, science is beginning to try and understand this stuff.

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Re:No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy by mjevans on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @04:43PM (#21140548)

I wonder if something like an MRI could allow medical professionals or diagnostic systems to automatically categorize this non-invasively?

When we reach a world where everyone has more star trek level medical care then a true survey of the population may allow for everyone to have improved lives.

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Re:No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy by somebodythere on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @04:58PM (#21140685)

Perhaps. I'm a little concerned that if this approach is used for diagnostics that it becomes another form of gatekeeping. (i.e. someone is transgender but denied treatment because their brain scans come up as cis.)

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Re:No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy by XorNot on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @07:42PM (#21141988)

There's a dark side of everything, but there are people who believe they want to transition who then find out it doesn't help when they do. Being able to diagnostically assess the likelihood that it's the correct treatment would be good for everyone.

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Re:No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy by partyboat1586 on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @05:17PM (#21140821)

Conversely it could help someone who is in denial and experiencing disphoria to come to terms with themselves.

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Re:No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy by CathedralBorrow on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @08:08PM (#21142182)

That would have to be an incredibly precise test though; if someone is in denial and you tell them "This test says there's only a 5% chance you're right", they will probably stay in denial.

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Re:No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy by coolreader18 on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @08:18PM (#21142255)

Reminds me of XKCD's Significant comic: https://xkcd.com/882/

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Re:No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy by Pfhreak on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @05:18PM (#21140830)

So, that gets complicated. What if medicine finds a certain physical trait that is prevalent in 90% of cases where people are trans? What does that mean for the other 10%? Odds are good their lives just got WAY harder. Coupled with a history of being mistreated by the medical industry, there's quite a lot of (rational, imo) fear in the trans community about medical diagnoses.

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