Cloudfindings

Is Gender Identity Actually In The Brain? Abstract A common claim for the etiology of gender dysphoria is that the sense of being a man or women is determined by brain structure and function, and that people with gender dysphoria have an opposite sexed brain, caused by abnormalities in prenatal hormone exposure. There is almost no evidence to support this idea, with commonly referenced brain imaging findings being in specific regions of the brain (rather than the brain as a whole), involving participants on puberty blockers or hormonal treatment, and failing to be replicated. Additional evidence in people with masculinized brains raised female is weak, and could be explained by other reasons than gender identity being biological.  Brain Imaging One common claim in attempting to explain transgenderism is that brain imaging studies find that trans women have "female brains" and trans men have "male brains", and that gender identity is biological. The brain is most def...

Gender dysphoria is not equivalent to gender nonconformity Abstract A widespread assumption often used to explain why autistic persons are far more likely than non autistic persons to be transgender, is that they are less conforming to gender norms, and because of this are more likely to be transgender. I first explain why the assumption that gender dysphoria is caused by nonconformity is flawed, then I show using research on congenital adrenal hyperplasia that gender nonconformity does not explain dysphoria or being transgender. Introduction With growing evidence that gender dysphoria is associated with autism, many have suggested that this is not due to gender dysphoria being “caused” by autism, but that autistic people are more gender nonconforming, and that gender non-conformity causes gender dysphoria. The assumption that gender dysphoria and transgenderism is equivalent to gender non-conformity has also been the basis of the suggestion that the diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” is ...

Literal Language Scale: Development & Association With Social Intelligence Autism is known to involve use of language that is “literal” (Happe 1995), and while many scales have been developed to assess autistic traits, there has not (to my knowledge) been a scale developed to assess autistic use of language. Such a scale would be useful to study the role of language in social cognition and how its affected in autism, and to better understand autism. To address this, I created an 8 item questionnaire with questions intended to cover different aspects of literal language [Table 1]. Table 1 The Literal Language Scale Explanation for item People tell me I "take things too seriously" Literal language may involve approaching social interaction in a serious, non-social way I often miss the point of jokes Most forms of humor involve complex social information, causing autistic persons to have difficulty understanding them I often don't pick up when someone is being sarcastic ...