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Nature 448, 999-1000 (30 August 2007) | doi:10.1038/nature05892; Published online 29 August 2007

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Behavioural neurobiology: Females can also be from Mars

Nirao M. Shah1 & S. Marc Breedlove2

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Is the preference to mate as a male or a female irreversibly set during development? Apparently not: a study in mice shows that pheromone perception determines how an adult female behaves sexually.

We perceive gender as a core characteristic, generally unwavering in almost any social context. So we regard gender differences in behaviour as reflecting irrevocable, pervasive differences in the adult brain of the two sexes1, rather than the flip of a switch between male or female behavioural repertoires.

  1. Nirao M. Shah is in the Department of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, 1550 4th Street, MC2722, San Francisco, California 94158, USA.
    Email: nms@ucsf.edu
  2. S. Marc Breedlove is in the Neuroscience Program, Michigan State University, 108 Giltner Hall, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA.
    Email: breedsm@msu.edu

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