Homosexual preference of creatures Changed by hormones Hokkaido University Research Group announced February 20 11:02
A research group at Hokkaido University has found that there are hormones in the brains of living creatures that work as they like each other, and that controlling them can greatly change the preferences of the opposite sex. It is hoped that this will lead to the elucidation of why humans like a particular sex.
A research group of Assistant Professor Saori Yokoi of Hokkaido University and others, using medaka, to focus on the hormone `` oxytocin '' in the brain and investigate its function, trying to find out in detail what determines the preference of the opposite sex. I did it.
Oxytocin is a hormone that is said to be more familiar and closer to the opposite sex, and we observed how the sexual orientation of medaka changes when the oxytocin function is eliminated by genetic manipulation.
As a result, when oxytocin disappears, females, which have the property of accepting the close male courtship of close people, now accept male courtship regardless of intimacy. On the contrary, she began to court for an intimate female.
Therefore, the research group found that controlling oxytocin significantly changed the preference for the opposite sex, and further revealed that the effects differ depending on gender.
Dr. Yokoi said, "Oxytocin has been considered to work the same in men and women, but from this result, the effect may be different for men and women, and we would like to investigate further in the future."