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<i>Perhaps this explains some of the bizarre behavior in the US Congress.</i>

<b>Gender Benders</b>
December 19, 2005 – John Allen

Talk about changing one’s stripes: The blue-banded goby takes that expression to a whole new level. In certain social environments, the fish will become the opposite sex, completely transforming its sex organs from female to male or vice versa.

Matthew Grober, associate professor of biology, wants to know what initiates the change. A recent study by the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience researcher suggests that the initial stages of the sex change in fish are regulated in the brain. The finding could help better explain the biological basis of human sexual identity.

“The field of biology really has this view of sex as a below-the-belt phenomenon. But, it you ask people where sex resides, it resides up here,” he says, pointing to his head. “Everyone will tell you that. You don’t receive information without the brain; you don’t disseminate information without the brain.”

Grober completed the study, published in September by Proceedings of the Royal Society-Biological Sciences, with help from Georgia State postdoctoral fellow Michael Black and a pair of researchers from the Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology at the University of Liege in Belgium.

The research found that when a dominant male is removed from a tank of female gobies, one of the females will, within minutes, begin exhibiting aggressive behavior and, within days, transform itself sexually into a male to fill the void. In a tank consisting of males only, one will become dominant and the rest will become females.

Having proved that behavior is the most critical trait in understanding the reproductive biology of the goby, the researchers hope next to determine what substance in the brain initiates the change. Aromatase, an enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen in the brain and gonads, is the focus of their continued work.

Grober says studying the effects of behavior and the brain on sexuality applies to all species. “There are almost no species on earth where if a male behaves inappropriately during courtship, he succeeds,” he says. “I can give you lists of my inappropriate learning experiences as a young man. Because we don’t have any feedback, we’re just expected to know this stuff. It’s frustrating being a male.”


Ninety percent of the game is half mental.

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