If you were just a brain floating in a tank

[Renate]

If you were just a brain floating in a tank without any body (presumably with some interface to the world)
would you still want/need hormones?  That is, how much of your desire/need for hormones is cognitive/emotional
and how much is physical/sexual?

[Lucy]

What is this about, a brain in a tank. I must be a little unimaganative, and a very bad speller.

If you were a brain in a tank then it wouldnt matter about hormones because the brain is the only part of me which is working properly, its the testorarone that has ruined the rest. but if there was no rest there would be no effecs of the T on my body cus I wouldnt have one LOL.

I dont5 know how fonfusing is this....

[Maud]

I'll take anything once.

[NicholeW.]

Hormones have had a profound positive effect on my cognition and emotion.

If you were just a brain floating in a tank without any body (presumably with some interface to the world)
would you still want/need hormones?  That is, how much of your desire/need for hormones is cognitive/emotional
and how much is physical/sexual?

Renate

Mine is both. The brain, after all is a physical organ, even in a tank!! *smile*

The rest I totally second.

Nichole

[Berliegh]

Hormones have had a profound positive effect on my cognition and emotion.

If you were just a brain floating in a tank without any body (presumably with some interface to the world)
would you still want/need hormones?  That is, how much of your desire/need for hormones is cognitive/emotional
and how much is physical/sexual?

Renate

There is too much hype attacted to hormones..

[Lisbeth]

Since my hypothalamus is designed to interact with estrogen then it would be rather appropriate to have some estrogen in my tank.

[Suzie]

If I were a brain floating in a tank, how would I drive to the pharmacy to pick up my hormones?

[Veronica Secret]

I would definitely want the effects of hormones. I keep thinking of that B-movie with the maniacal woman's head in a jar. "The Brain that wouldn't Die"

[Lisbeth]

. . . still how would I determine which ones to take considering I really have no way of telling what sex me and my brain truly is?

There are two kinds of brains (to oversimplify): those with a hypothalamus that responds to testosterone and those with a hypothalamus that responds to estrogen.  Those two kinds of brains don't need a way of telling what sex they are.  They already know.

[Nero]

. . . still how would I determine which ones to take considering I really have no way of telling what sex me and my brain truly is?

There are two kinds of brains (to oversimplify): those with a hypothalamus that responds to testosterone and those with a hypothalamus that responds to estrogen.  Those two kinds of brains don't need a way of telling what sex they are.  They already know.

Not to thread hijack, but I find this really interesting. Do you mean a man's brain is actually designed to respond to testosterone (and vice-versa)?
If so, that would make sense we feel so out of place.

[Lisbeth]

Not to thread hijack, but I find this really interesting. Do you mean a man's brain is actually designed to respond to testosterone (and vice-versa)?
If so, that would make sense we feel so out of place.

At about 8 to 12 weeks, if the brain is washed in testosterone, the hypothalamus is configured to respond to testosterone so as to maintain a constant level of hormones.  If it is washed in estrogen, the hypothalamus is configured to respond to estrogen and progesterone by producing FSH and HS on a cyclic basis.

[Marlene]

Not to thread hijack, but I find this really interesting. Do you mean a man's brain is actually designed to respond to testosterone (and vice-versa)?
If so, that would make sense we feel so out of place.

At about 8 to 12 weeks, if the brain is washed in testosterone, the hypothalamus is configured to respond to testosterone so as to maintain a constant level of hormones.  If it is washed in estrogen, the hypothalamus is configured to respond to estrogen and progesterone by producing FSH and HS on a cyclic basis.

Exactly.


I find this whole poll silly really.  It's not about the body or clothes or sex.


It's about identity!!!


Like the original poster, my brain runs much better on Estrogen.  Well DUH, that's because that's the way my brain developed in utero.  If it wasn't then transsexuality would be a "lifestyle".  It is a birth condition, plain and simple.  This is really Transsexaulity 101 stuff.

There is no choice involved here.  We didn't choose to be born this way.  Don't fall into that trap!  Transsexuality is a normal biological variant period.

[NicholeW.]

A simple google search can yield some large results for those interested in the hypothalamus and how differentiated it is between what we call the genders. "Transsexual brains" results in about 206,000 hits. One of which: http://etransgender.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=510 is rather easy reading and does pretty much support all that Lisbeth has said.

Are there objections? Inevitably. Many, some just objections and some scientific that involve numbers and reliability, etc. But, it does seem that more and more researchers are discovering that identity has a physiological basis in the brain, the hypothalamus especially.

How I decide I'm going to read that is up to me. My decision is that my 'floating brain' would need some estrogen in its mixture in the tank. 

[tinkerbell]

If I were a brain floating in a tank, how would I drive to the pharmacy to pick up my hormones?

LOL 

tink

[Lisbeth]

If I were a brain floating in a tank, how would I drive to the pharmacy to pick up my hormones?

Oh, you wouldn't have to.  Just get someone from the Brain Trust to pick them up for you.

[Shana A]

Hmmmm, I guess my home could be considered a "think tank" then....

Sorry, I couldn't resist  >

y2g