Sexual preference chemical found in mice


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A chemical in the brain controls sexual preference in mice, according to scientists in China.

Male mice bred without serotonin lose their preference for females, a report in Nature says.

The researchers say it is the first time that a neurotransmitter has been shown to play a role in sexual preference in mammals.

Experts have warned about the dangers of drawing conclusions about human sexuality.

The research team first bred male mice whose brains were not receptive to serotonin.

A series of experiments demonstrated that these mice had lost the preference for females shown by unmodified males.

When presented with a choice of partners, they showed no overall preference for either males or females.

When just a male was introduced into the cage, the modified males were far more likely to mount the male and emit a "mating call" normally given off when encountering females than unmodified males were.

Similar results were achieved when a different set of mice were bred. These lacked the tryptonphan hydroxylase 2 gene, which is needed to produce serotonin.

However, a preference for females could be "restored" by injecting serotonin into the brain.

The report concludes: "Serotonergic signalling is crucial for male sexual preference in mice. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a neurotransmitter in the brain has been demonstrated to be important in mammalian sexual preference."

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So, do gay men have 0% serotonin?

I can see companies making the anti-gay pill.

Yeah it's called MDMA :D

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Yeah it's called MDMA :D

yeah, ecstacy clearly makes gay people straight...

does sexual prefernce really matter? I couldnt care less if someone is homosexual

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This doesn't really surprise me, it just seems like it's removing strong sexual attraction to one gender. If somehow they had male mice that naturally showed a sexual attraction to males, I'd bet that the same experiment would result in them losing that specific attraction as well.

Basically I don't see how it's related to which sexual preference you have, rather whether you have one at all.

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This doesn't really surprise me, it just seems like it's removing strong sexual attraction to one gender. If somehow they had male mice that naturally showed a sexual attraction to males, I'd bet that the same experiment would result in them losing that specific attraction as well.

Basically I don't see how it's related to which sexual preference you have, rather whether you have one at all.

Hmm it would be nice if the process is similar in humans, looks like the homosexuality cure was also found for these mice.

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ok the first part should make you think twice "scientists in China" im sorry but i doubt this and will want to see from other scientists!

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Hmm it would be nice if the process is similar in humans, looks like the homosexuality cure was also found for these mice.

I must have misread the article, all it does is suppresses the sexual preference of the mice, if it likes females it still likes females just less it doesnt automatically turn gay and vice versa. Or you would rather a "cure" that stops them feeling attracted to men rather than switching them to like women?

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This doesn't really surprise me, it just seems like it's removing strong sexual attraction to one gender.

It does surprise me, since gay men and women produce serotonin.

The effects of lacking serotonin is far more wide-reaching than just affecting sexuality, assuming it does in humans too.

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Hmm it would be nice if the process is similar in humans, looks like the homosexuality cure was also found for these mice.

How did you get 'homosexuality cure' out of that? Like I said it doesn't seem to say anything about being specific to one sexuality, just that it removes the preference altogether. It just makes everyone exactly bisexual :p

Also I would imagine that these mice have other problems with the absence of serotonin.

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since serotonin is the "happy" chemical can we conclude that homosexuals are miserable people at a biological level ?

So since I have low serotonin level, and am always depressed does that mean I'm supposed to be gay? I still think there is a psychological factor unrelated to the physical chemicals in sexual preference.

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Hmm it would be nice if the process is similar in humans, looks like the homosexuality cure was also found for these mice.

I don't see why they would be studying this in mice, if they aren't looking to apply the findings to humans.

I'm sure that sooner or later, they will experiment on humans with an anti-gay drug -- with disasterous results.

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It does surprise me, since gay men and women produce serotonin.

The effects of lacking serotonin is far more wide-reaching than just affecting sexuality, assuming it does in humans too.

Yes, so in that case supposedly removing the serotonin would remove that preference. I see this as finding that seratonin reinforces your sexual preference, not that it defines what that preference is. I don't see anything that seems to relate to being homosexual or heterosexual, just a change from having *some* preference to having no preference.

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Shouldn't be to hard to test. Just find the nearest gay man, shoot him up with some serotonin and see if he wants to have sex with a female.

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