300296 VO Neural, Endocrine and Behavioral Components of Sex and Gender (2013S)

Phenotype is a mixture of genetic predisposition, development, experience and context. Our definitions of sex and gender phenotypes are interpretations of these cocktails with gradual transitions and distinct endpoints. We would like to draw on competent sources in the fields of neurobiology, physiology, endocrinology, behavior and mathematics to demonstrate how the expression and perception of sex and gender phenotypes can come about. Using animal models we shall go through the building blocks of morphological, physiological and behavioral phenotypic expression. These span the ranges from neural function, metabolism and immunology to stress management and cognition. On the basis of comparative studies between humans and non-human mammals it can be shown even in simple organisms that the building blocks for gender expression are similar, but not the same, in the genetic sexes and that the development of the phenotype has a strong individual character. One must therefore interpret individual phenotypic “sex” or better gender as an expression of the gene-development-experience-context system and thus a consequence of underlying systems processes that lead to morphological characteristics and behavioral expression. The goal of the lecture is not to prove that the physiological and behavioral expressions of sex phenotypes are different, it is more to show how and why they may differ.