Sandra Witelson s Influence On Male And Female Brains (...

Sandra Witelson is currently a professor at McMaster University which is located in Hamilton, Ontario. Witelson is a professor for the department of Psychiatry Behavioral Neurosciences. Witelson had a love for science at a young age as her father was an intelligent man and encouraged Witelson’s interest in the human body. When first attending McGill University, Witelson had planned to major in mathematics, but changed her mind when she realized that psychology was a better fitting choice (Science.ca). Witelson has an outstanding background of education as she has received her B.Sc, M.Sc, and PhD from McGill University. Witelson’s research interests focus primarily around the brain and its functions based on whether it is a male or female brain. The main focus of Witelson’s research is around biological basis for cognition in male and female brains. Sandra Witelson’s research allows for a further understanding of different cognitive functions within the ma le and female brains (McMaster University). Early on in Witelson’s career, she began her work within her brain bank. The brain bank began after Witelson had won a contract from the National Institutes of Health in 1977. Witelson began her brain bank in hopes of understanding why the capacity and ability to speak and understand language is localized within the left hemisphere of the brain for 90 to 95 percent of people. In order for a brain bank to be successful, brains were needed to study. Witelson tried to find donorsShow MoreRelatedGay Men Born Gay1235 Words   |  5 Pagesstudy of 41 brains taken from people who died before age 60, Simon LeVay, a biologist at San Diego s Salk Institute for Biological Studies, found that one tiny region in the brain of homosexual men was more like that in women than that in heterosexual men. Sexuality is an important part of who we are, notes LeVay, who is gay. And now we have a specific part of the brain to look at and to study. That specific part is found at the front of the hypothalamus in an area of the brain that is known