- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers
who found homosexual rams in a herd of sheep said they had found changes
in the brains of the "gay" animals.
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- The results, published in the latest issue of the Journal
Endocrinology, tend to support studies in humans that have found anatomical
differences between the brains of heterosexual men and homosexual men.
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- The researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University
School of Medicine found certain groups of brain cells were different between
rams and ewes in a part of the sheep brain controlling sexual behavior.
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- And in rams that preferred to mate with other males,
this area was smaller than in males that preferred females.
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- "There's a difference in the brain that is correlated
with sexual partner preference rather than gender of the animal you're
looking at," said Kay Larkin, an OHSU electron microscopist who worked
on the study.
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- "This particular study, along with others, strongly
suggests that sexual preference is biologically determined in animals,
and possibly in humans," added Charles Roselli, a professor of physiology
and pharmacology who led the research team.
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- "The hope is that the study of these brain differences
will provide clues to the processes involved in the development of heterosexual,
as well as homosexual behavior."
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- Animal experts have found that about 8 percent of domestic
rams display preferences for other males as sexual partners.
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- "Same-sex attraction is widespread across many different
species," said Roselli, who worked with a team at Oregon State University
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's U.S. Sheep Experiment Station
in Dubois, Idaho.
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- They looked at 27 adult, 4-year-old sheep of mixed Western
breeds including eight male sheep that preferred to mate with females,
nine that mated mostly with males and 10 ewes.
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- They found a densely packed cluster of nerve cells in
the hypothalamus of the sheep brain, which they named the ovine sexually
dimorphic nucleus or oSDN.
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- The hypothalamus regulates sex hormone secretion, blood
pressure, body temperature, water balance, and food intake, and also helps
regulate complex behaviors such as sexual behavior.
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- The oSDN in rams that preferred females was "significantly"
larger and contained more neurons than in male-oriented rams and in ewes.
There were also hormonal differences between the brains of homosexual and
heterosexual sheep.
- © Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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- Comment
Alton Raines
3-8-4
GAY sheep? Ok, now I've heard everything. Just because male sheep, like
dogs and many other animals, hump and yes sometimes successfully 'mate'
(for lack of a better term) with fellows of the same gender, does not make
them GAY. Animals are not "attracted" to one another sexually
like human beings are. Females go into heat, the male reacts to the scent
and will screw anything within a half mile radius. The same reason a dog
will hump your leg if you have a particular scent on you. He's just reacting.
It's instinct, not sexual preference! What idiocy on that part of these
so-called scientists! Until I see a sheep that interior decorates and listens
to Judy Garland albums and exclusively has sexual contact with other male
sheep... this is a lot of sheep dip!
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