What Science Has to Say about Gender Identity

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Today President Trump announced that transgender individuals would not be allowed to serve in the U.S. Military.  This follows a previous Trump reversal of guidelines put in place by President Obama regarding how public schools should handle their transgender students’ use of bathrooms. In discussions of these issues, a distinction is often made between “biological sex” and a psychological state of “gender identity” with the latter weighted as less important, less biological, or less real. Political commentator Ben Shapiro, for example, illustrates the attitude in his response to a transgender rights advocate questioning him at a recent lecture: “I’m not going to modify basic biology because it threatens your subjective sense of what you are.”  [Emphasis added.]  This sort of statement presupposes that Mr. Shapiro understands the basic biology, which I'm sure he doesn't given that biologists are still working it out.  

What we do know from basic biology is that the classic model of sexual differentiation is probably wrong.  

There is a classic understanding of the biology of sex: X and Y gene expression leads to the determination of female or male gonads (ovaries, testes), which in turn secrete hormones that lead to a wide range of sexual differentiation in females and males from external genitalia to body size and shape to behavior.  Recent research, however, has demonstrated a more complex biology in which non-gonadal sex differences, including in the brain and the behaviors it controls, result from gene expression directly in these non-gonadal tissues.  Much of the evidence for this new view has come from a range of animal studies demonstrating that manipulation of hormone levels does not fully account for non-gonadal sexual differentiation, even when it comes to behavior. To provide one example, castrated male zebra finches develop normal male song patterns and hormone-modified genetically female finches, who develop testes as a result of the hormone manipulation, nonetheless retained their normal female song pattern.

If it is the case, as the existing science indicates, that biology operates along parallel pathways to determine and differentiate male and female phenotypes, then it is biological feasible that genetic variation could lead to individuals with mixed sex differentiation, that is, with the gonads of one sex and a brain that leans the other way.  One theory is that transgender individuals are the phenotypic realization of this biological state of affairs. 

To put it into lay terms that policy makers and political commentators can understand, what this may mean is that your subjective sense of what you are IS due to basic biology even if it disagrees with your gonads.  And if this is true, the individual who Shapiro chastised might have responded, "I'm not going to modify basic biology because it threatens your subjective sense of what I am."

To be clear, science does not yet have a definitive answer regarding the biology of gender identity. The underlying biology is complex and particularly difficult to study in humans.  But at the same time, it is quite clear that if lawmakers, lawyers, and presidents are to engage in a debate that turns on biology, then state-of-the-art biological science must be part of the discussion. 

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Links to some relevant literature:

Sex Chromosomes and Brain Sexual Differentiation

Reframing Sexual Differentiation of the Brain

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Research faculty and post doc positions at Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language, San Sebastian

RESEARCH FACULTY POSITIONS at the BCBL- Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language (San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain) www.bcbl.eu (Center of excellence Severo Ochoa)

The Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language (San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain) offers SENIOR research staff positions in several areas: language acquisition, production, multilingualism, neurodegeneration of language, language and learning disorders, neurocognition of language and advanced methods for cognitive neuroscience.

The Center promotes a rich research environment without teaching obligations. It provides access to the most advanced behavioral and neuroimaging techniques, including 3 Tesla MRI, a whole-head MEG system, four ERP labs, a NIRS lab, a baby lab including eyetracker, two eyetracking labs, and several well-equipped behavioral labs. There are excellent technical support staff and research personnel (PhD and postdoctoral students). The senior positions are permanent appointments.

We are looking for cognitive neuroscientists or experimental psychologists with a background in psycholinguistics and/or neighboring cognitive neuroscience areas, and physicists and/or engineers with fMRI expertise. Individuals interested in undertaking research in the fields described in www.bcbl.eu (research) should apply through the Ikerbasque web page (www.ikerbasque.net).

Deadline September 15^th, 13:00 CET

Only researchers with a solid research track, senior level and international research experience are considered.

Support letter from the host institution is mandatory.

For more information, please contact the Director of BCBL, Manuel Carreiras

RESEARCH FACULTY POSITION (Staff Scientist) and POSTDOCTORAL POSITION at the BCBL- Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language (San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain) www.bcbl.eu (Center of excellence Severo Ochoa)

The Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language (San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain) has an open research staff position (Staff Scientist)  and a postdoctoral position in the area of language acquisition.  The Center has a state of the art baby lab, and exceptional access to babies.  The bilingual nature of the Basque Country provides an unusual opportunity to study language acquisition.

The Center promotes a rich research environment with minimal teaching obligations. It provides access to the most advanced behavioral and neuroimaging techniques, including 3 Tesla MRI, a whole-head MEG system, four ERP labs, a NIRS lab, the baby lab (including an eyetracker), two eyetracking labs, and several well-equipped behavioral labs. There are excellent technical support staff and research personnel (PhD and postdoctoral students).

This faculty position has a term of appointment of 5 years. Candidates should have at least 3-5 years of postdoctoral experience and a very strong publication track record. The postdoctoral position has a term of appointment of 2 years with a potential renewal.

Deadline: September 30^th, 2017.

We encourage immediate applications as the selection process will be ongoing and the appointment may be made before the deadline.

To submit your application please follow this link: http://www.bcbl.eu/calls , applying for “BabyLab 2017“ and upload:

1. Your curriculum vitae.
2. A cover letter/statement describing your research interests (4000 characters maximun)
3. The names of two referees who would be willing to write letters of recommendation

For further information about the position, please contact the Director of BCBL, Manuel Carreiras (info@bcbl.eu)

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Open Rank Faculty Position -- Communication Sciences & Disorders -- Penn State

The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders is seeking to fill an 
open-rank faculty position as Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor. We 
are a nationally-ranked program that, for more than 80 years, has been 
preparing highly-qualified professionals for clinical, academic, and 
research careers addressing prevention and rehabilitation of speech, 
language, and hearing problems (http://csd.hhd.psu.edu). Our tenured, 
tenure-track faculty have active programs of research within a culture that 
encourages engagement with students in our undergraduate, master’s, and 
doctoral programs. The responsibilities of the position are: to establish or 
continue a line of research in communication sciences and disorders; teach 
undergraduate and graduate courses consistent with the candidate’s 
expertise; supervise undergraduate and graduate (M.S./Ph.D.) research; 
provide service to the Department, College, and University, and; contribute 
to the clinical aspects of the program. Specialty area is open, but 
preference will be given to candidates whose area of research provides 
opportunities for inter-departmental collaborations and/or participation in 
one or more of the College Research Centers such as the Prevention Research 
Center or the Center for Healthy Children.  Opportunities exist to make use 
of the magnetic resonance imaging facility and for interdisciplinary 
research collaboration with colleagues from multiple Centers, Consortia and 
Labs at the University Park Campus and at Penn State’s College of Medicine 
at Hershey. Numerous departments, including Biobehavioral Health, 
Psychology, Kinesiology, Bioengineering, and Human Development and Family 
Studies, are potential partners. This position requires a Ph.D. in a 
relevant area with an emerging and/or active thematic program of research 
and scholarship that has the potential to attract external funding. Previous 
teaching experience and/or postdoctoral experience desired. CCC-SLP or CCC-A 
preferred, but not required. The ability to work effectively with diverse 
students, faculty, and staff is required. Salary will be competitive, 
commensurate with background and experience.  An attractive benefits package 
is available. Review of applications will begin August 2017 and will 
continue until a suitable candidate is identified. Candidates will need to 
complete an on-line application and upload a resume/CV, copies of 
transcripts, statements of teaching and research experiences and interests, 
up to three relevant publications, and a list of names, titles, and complete 
contact information for at least three professional references who may be 
contacted.  Apply online at https://psu.jobs/job/71787

CAMPUS SECURITY CRIME STATISTICS: For more about safety at Penn State, and 
to review the Annual Security Report which contains information about crime 
statistics and other safety and security matters, please go to 
http://www.police.psu.edu/clery/, which will also provide you with detail on 
how to request a hard copy of the Annual Security Report.

Penn State is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and is 
committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants 
without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, 
gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

Post-Doc at Vanderbilt, Brain Development Lab with James Booth

A post-doctoral position is open in the Brain Development Laboratory in the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. We are broadly interested in how the brain changes over development and learning, and in individual differences (including disability) in brain organization. Research in the lab is focused on the neural basis of (1) reading and language, (2) mathematical cognition, (3) executive function and (4) cross-cultural differences. Successful candidate will be expected to be a part of a highly interdisciplinary and collaborative team.

PhD in psychology, education, neuroscience, or a related field is required. For this position, we are particularly interested in candidates with background in literacy in the deaf. Previous experience in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data collection and advanced analysis is preferred. Candidates are expected to have a demonstrated record of excellent scientific writing skills. Please address questions or send Curriculum Vita, letter of application with research interests, and contact information for three references to James R. Booth at james.booth@vanderbilt.edu by July 10, 2017.