Pink Brain Blue Brain: Nervous System Power Reading

For our Nervous System Power Reading Activity, I chose to read the book Pink Brain Blue Brain by Lise Eliot Ph.D. because it interested me in the true differences between the sexes; are boys and girls truly as different as we seem? If so, what about the makeup of our brain makes us unsimilar? I chose to read the first chapter, "Pink and Blue in the Womb", to explore these questions. This chapter mainly focused on how and when males and females differentiate while still unbirthed, and what exactly the porcesses were that controlled the formation of who we know as girls or boys. 

Although the sex of one's child is often the most prominent thing existing in the minds of future parents, the actual differentiation physiologically is only put into play after the first 6 weeks, and the only way to determine whether zygotes have been created with XY chromosomes or XX chromosomes is to use take a single cell from the 8 cell cluster and test it(PGD) or predict X and Y carrying sperm through a technology called Micro Sort(which uses the size difference between the two types of sperm to control the creation of female/male zygotes). Ethicists have long since argued the morality of choosing and discarding embryos of certain sexes, which is common in multiple countries, but even though laws have been erected to restrict sex selection, the only real way to combat such problems would be to raise the social standing of women(as female embryos are often discarded the most in such countries). Eliot then goes through the activations of sex such as the SRY and DAX1 parts of DNA as well as certain hormones like testosterone and AMH(but not estrogen, since it only impacts girls and boys after birth). Connections to how boys and girls define themselves due to environment vs. nature are also made, as the author addresses different cases where genetically born females or males classified themselves differently due to certain disorders, and genetically mutilated individuals were raised as contrasting sexes for a variety of reasons. The main point that the author makes is that although the psychological differences in girls and boys may look miniscule, the raising of both sexes needs to reflect those differences to create the best of every child.

This reading definitely relates to our class because it branches throughout the different systems of the body(reproductive, endocrine, and nervous) and explains exactly what hormones, parts of the brain, and parts of our DNA control different functions, and the impact that they have on the human body. I can relate all of these findings to the idea that "form fits function" because they really do in terms of creating a new human being; the reason that our bodies produce greater or lesser amounts of certain things and create different structures in male and female bodies is truly due to the different functions necessary in each body.