There has always been a debate about the reasons of a person’s sexual orientation - Is sexual orientation something people are born with or a matter of choice? Well, in the latest study that is bound to re-ignite the debate, it is weighed more on the side of genetics.
So, why are people straight or gay? Researchers at
A decade back, Witelson had demonstrated that there are more left-handers in the homosexual population. Handedness is a sign of how the brain is organized to represent different aspects of intelligence. Language, for example, is usually on the left and music on the right. In other researches, Witelson had also found that left-handers have a larger posterior corpus callosum (the band of nerve fibres connecting the two hemispheres of the brain) than right-handers.
This raised the hypothesis for the current study - whether the anatomy of the brain of the sub-group of right-handed homosexual men is similar to that of left-handers. The researchers found that the posterior part of the corpus callosum is larger in homosexual than heterosexual men. As the size of the corpus callosum is largely inherited, it suggested a genetic factor in sexual orientation.
“Our results do not mean that heredity is destiny, but they do indicate that environment is not the only player in the field,” said Witelson. The finding may be one additional piece of information for individuals trying to determine their sexual orientation as “sometimes people aren't sure of their sexual orientation”, added Witelson.
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