The brains of males and females are not much different

Although males and females sometimes act as if they came from two different planets, new research done on fruit flies shows that both males and females possess the right brain for both sexes. Controlling the remote sex behavior of fruit flies reveals that flirtatious tricks of males still lie dormant in their children's brains.

Male fruit flies sing to attract females, they vibrate on one side of the wing to create a distinctive sound. The female will react by allowing the male to mate. Using a revolutionary technique he developed at Yale to help control the brain through light, Professor Gero Miesenböck of Oxford University demonstrated that female flies were also available for singing. this.

Miesenböck said: 'Maybe you think the sexes' brains must be different, but it doesn't seem like the truth is. In fact, most of the brain is shared by both sexes with some key 'switches' to make a difference in behavior between males and females'.

Miesenböck and his former colleagues were pioneers in implementing a very effective new research method that allowed them to trigger certain actions in flies from a distance by projecting a laser beam at them. Flies that are genetically modified so that only neurons transmit the sense of excitement respond to light. When laser beams are fired, these neurons are stimulated and thus motivate certain behaviors, such as jumping, crawling or flying away.

Fruit fly.(Photo: ehow.com)

In a recent study, Miesenböck and colleagues used the technique to understand the behavior of 'singing' during the courtship of males. That behavioral neuron system makes up the products of the fru gene - the key determinant of sex in the nervous system. Using the laser beam method, the researchers can turn on the switch for neurons responsible for flirting (fru neurons) and make the male flies begin work on finding girlfriends. its.

Miesenböck really wants to know if they can apply to children. If possible, this would prove that the neuron group in charge of male behavior also exists in the female brain but they simply lie dormant. In fact, researchers can also make children have similar behaviors, although their 'song' is not 'good' like a male.

'The fact that we can get females to vibrate a wing to make a song for a mate - an unprecedented female act - shows that the brain area regulating male behavior is also present in the brain of children, although children have never used it for courtship purposes. An inevitable question is why do children also have this brain region? It may overlap the areas used for other behaviors, ' Miesenböck said.

'But the ultimate secret of research is the basis of the difference between male and female behavior. In terms of anatomy, these differences are not easy to see. Why is it that the same sex is given the same nervous capital that the two sexes have such different behavior?

'Our findings suggest that fruit flies must have key nodes or' control switches' to set the whole system to 'male' or 'female' states. Our next goal is to find these switches. In a previous study performed on mice, the researchers found that female mice also had male behavior when the pheromon signal was blocked. Since then, it can be seen that the behavior of males is also actively restrained in rodents'.

Miesenböck said: ' In fruit flies, you will not be able to see the behavior of the male spontaneously when blocking the pheromon signal. Moreover, this is a source of artificial stimulation. Female fruit flies are also programmed but seem to lack the program start command. In short, this principle is the same in fruit flies and mice: the male and female brains are not as different as we think . '