TEDxJaffa -- Daphna Joel -- Are brains male or female?

Professor Daphna Joel explores the mistaken concept that brains can be either male or female, thus providing an explanation for why men and women are different. She disputes the theory, displays the neurological data and proves that our brains are really a unique mosaic of male and female characteristics, forming an 'intersex brain.'

Prof. Joel received her Ph.D. in psychology in Tel-Aviv University, and joined the faculty of TAU in 1998. Prof. Joel is presently the head of the Psychobiology graduate program at the School of Psychological Sciences, and a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience.

Prof. Joel's research interests focus on understanding the involvement of basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits in normal and abnormal behavior, using mainly animal models of psychopathology. More recently Prof. Joel has expanded her work to research questions related to brain, sex and gender, and in particular the complex interplay between sex and environment in the development of psychopathology.

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  People & Blogs

[TheLaca58]

The talk nicely demonstrates very clear differences btw M and F brains; however, the main finding re. sex-dependent stress responses is a beautiful demonstration for those differences... The fact that under DIFFERENT conditions M and F brains seem similar and vice versa exemplifies differences not similarities...Thus, although the findings are interesting, the conclusions seem flawed.

[LexieAssassin]

Most teachers are women? Odd, when I was in school, it was roughly around 50/50.

[Beth Andrea]

An anti-Semitic poster...'Nuff said. This is not biased, not at all.

[Bel Savis]

A kike professor. Nuff said. This is not biased, not at all.

[planewrapping]

Anti-science feminist alert!

[Schtofenbach]

Interesting talk! Those sex "thinking abilities" differences attributed to morphological brain differences always seem ridiculous: It is clear that a person is much more similar in his way of thinking to his parents (regardless their sex) than to that of any other person of the same sex chosen randomly . That means that the statistical differences related to a gender are negligible. If environmental influences further affect the morphology then all this comparisons really seem meaningless.

[Barry Kent]

Would it be reasonable to do these tests on xxy’s to see if they differ from xy and xx to see whether they compeer to ever male or female in brain paten.