Lise Eliot: Sex, Brain, and Culture: The Science and Pseudoscience of Gender Difference

As neuroscience research rapidly progresses, it is clear that males and females show certain group-level differences in brain structure, function and neurochemistry. Unclear, however, is what causes such differences, and how consistent they are across different ages and cultures. Animal and human studies indicate that prenatal testosterone biases some features of behavior, but the neural basis of behavioral sex differences is also poorly understood. Far less research has explored the impact of gender enculturation on children’s brain development, but it is likely to be substantial, given the strength of neural plasticity in early life and the potency of other cultural experience, such as language, on lifelong neurobehavioral function. In sum, this talk will use our current understanding of brain maturation and plasticity to outline a more integrative, biopsychosocial approach for understanding gender development and its neural substrate. This lecture was recorded on January 29, 2015. The Center for Values in Medicine, Science and Technology lecture series is co-sponsored by and in partnership with the Galerstein Women’s Center, the Gender Studies Program, Rainbow Guard and Pro-choice Feminist Alliance. 00:00 - [Introduction] 06:50 - [Popular zeitgeist about sex differences and the brain] 09:35 - [Its repercussions on teachers] 13:50 - [Bad neuroscience in media and research] 22:20 - [Quantifying effect sizes] 24:10 - [The gender similarities hypothesis] 25:30 - [Take home message] 28:55 - [Brain development] 36:20 - [Sex differences in the brain] 44:55 - [Brain fallacy] 47:25 - [The nurture side] 01:03:05 - [Implicit bias] 01:10:50 - [Q and A] ABOUT LISE ELIOT Lise Eliot is associate professor of neuroscience at the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science. A graduate of Harvard University, she received her PhD in cellular physiology and biophysics from Columbia University and did post-doctoral research at Baylor College of Medicine before turning to public education about brain and gender development. She has published over 50 works, including the books, What’s Going On in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life and Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps - And What We Can Do About It. ABOUT THE CENTER The Center for Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology's mission is to understand, evaluate, and improve the ethical and cultural influences on and implications of medicine, science, and technology. This mission is driven by several key ideas: Innovation led by the heart as well as the head. Science that is ethically and socially responsible. Medicine practiced with compassion and wisdom. Social and cultural change informed by the best science and technology. Using creativity, knowledge, and intelligence to make the world a better place in which to live.