A FALL EVENING PROGRAM
CO-SPONSORED BY THE WOMEN & SCIENCE AND PARENTS & SCIENCE INITIATIVES

The Pink and Blue in Gray Matter:
Hormones, Gender, and the Developing Mind

The differing behavioral attributes of boys and girls–and men and women–have become a major focus in social science. Many psychologists have paid close attention to the impact of gender bias in primary school classrooms, for example, while others have looked at how women and men can change the culture of a workplace when they venture into environments traditionally dominated by a single gender.

These discussions often lead to questions about the origins and significance of gender-related differences in the brain. A growing body of research indicates that hormones such as testosterone and estrogen exert lasting, sex-specific effects on the structure and function of the brain, beginning during embryonic development. Nonetheless, the causal links between biology and gender-related behavioral predispositions are poorly understood. Intriguing clues have begun to emerge, however, from the work of Margaret McCarthy, Ph.D., a former Rockefeller University postdoctoral investigator who now conducts research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. McCarthy was named chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in 2011, and also serves as a professor in the departments of physiology and psychology.

Dr. McCarthy has made critical discoveries about how hormones shape the brain and its cellular connections. Her studies with rodent models have shown that the amygdala, a brain region involved in emotions and social behavior, exhibits gender-associated differences in cellular structure and chemistry. These findings have implications for understanding gender disparities in psychiatric health—one of her laboratory’s main interests. Dr. McCarthy and her colleagues are looking for factors that can help to explain why young men have a higher incidence of autism, attention deficit disorder, and early-onset schizophrenia, while women are more likely to develop major depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and eating disorders.

The Women & Science and Parents & Science initiatives will co-present this special evening program with Dr. McCarthy, who will share her insights on a fascinating area of neuroscience that is too often oversimplified. Rockefeller President and Carson Family Professor Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Ph.D., who heads a laboratory that studies brain development at the University, will host the program.