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Some questions theory can
answer
What is the purpose of differentiation
into two sexes?
What adaptive significance it has? What is the nature
of the
differences between
sexes? What is sexual dimorphism, why is it
needed and what does it tells us about? How is it related
with other life phenomena? Why is there a
sex difference
in susceptibility to many diseases? How the female flower
“knows” about the quantity of male flowers around? Should
men and women be considered equal for any job? Should women
be a jet fighter pilot, and men - a day-care center
provider, nurse or a watch and electronics assembly worker?
Physiology
Why do women have better
verbal abilities?
— men have better
visual-spatial abilities?
More developed spatial
abilities of men are related to their more advanced,
evolutionary later ipsilateral visual pathways providing
stereoscopy.
— women have better sense of
smell?
The sense of smell is decreasing.
Demography
Why do women usually live
longer than men, but men are “champions” in the duration of
life?
High birth- and death- rate
of males and left-handed people under extreme conditions?
Excessive birth-rate of boys
in during wars ("phenomenon of war years") and in harems?
Teratology
Why some congenital
anomalies are more
frequently occur in boys while others—in girls?
— twice as much boys are born
with one kidney, and 2.5-fold more girls—with three kidneys?
— congenital hip luxation is
four times more frequent in girls, and the left side is the
most
frequently affected (60%)?
— patent ductus
arteriosus, Lutembacher disease, and ostium secundum are
more frequent in women?
— aortal stenosis,
coarctation of aorta, and transpositions of the great
arteries are more frequent in men?
Sociology
Why men
are more vulnerable to all social vices (alcohol, tobacco,
drugs and gambling), but they damage women more severely?
For example there are 3 times more men-alcoholics, but women
die 3 times more frequently from alcoholic cirrhosis.
Many men already have enzymes necessary to utilize calories
from ethanol.
Anthropology
Four types of male
skulls and only one type of female skulls in Bashkir
population.
Why dermatoglyphics
of Bulgarian males is similar to Turkish type, while that of
Bulgarian females—to Lithuanian type?
Why
– in large vertebrates males are more often larger than
females, while in small insects vice versa—females are
larger?
– the bull “gives” more milk than the cow and the cock—more
eggs than the hen?
– boys birth-rate is increasing in “female” associations
(textile cities, harems) and decreasing in “male” ones
(expeditions, port cities)?
– do we have
much more men in mathematics, science, music, composition,
painting and book writing?
– all “new” diseases,
diseases of civilization and urbanization (atherosclerosis, cancer, coronary diseases, schizophrenia)
are predominantly occur in man?
– some congenital anomalies are more frequently occur in
boys while others—in girls (for example, there are twice as
much boys among newborns with one kidney, and 2.5-fold more
girls among newborns with three kidneys)?
– men are more frequently damaged by immune deficit diseases
(such as AIDS), while women—by autoimmune diseases (such as
arthritis)?
–
varicose strikes women
more frequently, while gout—males?
–
men are more vulnerable to all social vices (alcohol,
tobacco, drugs and gambling), but they damage women more
severely? For example there are 3 times more men-alcoholics,
but women die 3 times more frequently from alcoholic
cirrhosis.
These and many other questions are
explained by the new theory of sex differentiation. Some of
them are still on pages of newspapers and magazines and
people who discuss them need to understand that our social
life is closely related and based on our biology.
What the evolutionary purpose of
differentiation into autosomes and sex chromosomes is? On
what principle is it based? What particular genes are
located on autosomes and on the X and Y chromosomes? How can
we explain the features of sex chromosome pairing,
crossing-over, translocation, and condensation? What are the
results of different algorithms of chromosome behavior? Why
are the autosomes transferred from the parents to the
descendants in a stochastic manner, whereas the sex
chromosomes behave in special ways, namely, the Y-chromosome
is transferred from the father to the son only and the
X-chromosome, to the daughter? Which genes are located in
autosomes, X-chromosomes, and Y-chromosomes, respectively?
Are the genes born, live, work, and die in a single
chromosome or nomadize? Is there a regular route of the
genes via the chromosomes, and if yes, what is such a route?
What is handedness for?
What are the biological role and the evolutionary importance
of lefthandedness? Is it adaptive and in which way?
What is the fundamental difference between left-handed and
right-handed individuals? How is their ratio in a population
regulated, if at all? If the fitness of right-handed
individuals is higher, why they do not supplant the
left-handed?
Laterality
Why apes
reach for and grasp food with the left hand, but manipulate (open bolts,
turn nuts) with the right hand? [MacNeilage,
1987; Beck, Barton, 1972; Ettlinger, 1961; Ettlinger, Moffett, 1964;
Milner, 1969; Gautrin, 1970; Tokuda, 1957, 1963, 1969]
Old and new characters
— siamangs, chimpanzees,
orangutans, and gorillas prefer the right foot for beginning
terrestrial movement? [MacNeilage, 1987]
— ovulation in dolphins
occurs predominantly on the left ovary?
— only the left nostril of
sperm whale is primarily associated with breathing?
Right organs
usually acquire new functions, while left organs keep the
old ones.
— backs of penguin chicks
blacken, and of beluga calves (Huso huso) brighten from the
head?
Effect of
‘nose-tail’ asymmetry
— the heart is displaced to
the left?
During lung
development, the right lung appeared first and pushed
centrally positioned heart to the left. When after many
generations the left lung appeared, the place was already
taken. Therefore the right lung has three lobes, while the
left one only two.
Brain:
— men have more asymmetric brain? [McGlone, 1980]
The evolution of the brain goes from symmetry to asymmetry.
— the right cortex is “closer” to subcortex as a whole than
the left one? [W.Heller, 1993].
The right hemisphere and subcortex are conservative
subsystems, the left hemisphere and cortex the operative
ones. Since the lateral differentiation is older than the
cortical one, the brain subsystems form the following
sequence: right subcortex - left subcortex - right cortex -
left cortex. Consequently, from the information viewpoint
the right cortex is “closer” to subcortex as a whole than
the left one. The right sub cortex is the most “ancient” and
“removed from environment” subsystem, the left cortex is the
most “new” and “closest to the environment” one.
— high prevalence of aphasia and apraxia in women with
lesions of the anterior brain and in men with lesions of the
posterior brain? [Kimura, 1992].
Can be explained by the superposition of two dimorphisms
(gradients), sexual and frontal-occipital: in the male sex
and the anterior brain, all changes appear earlier than in
the female sex and the posterior brain, respectively.
Vision:
— the left eye is more
sensitive to simple signals (flash of light), and right
eye—to complex ones (words, numbers)?
[Klimenko,
1984]
Old and new stimuli
— the left eye is more
sensitive to common words, and right eye—to brand names? []
Old and new words
Hearing:
— the left ear is more
sensitive to nature sounds (noise of rain and sea, barking
of the dog, cough), and right ear—to semantic ones (words,
numbers)?
[Опыты
по дихотическому прослушиванию
(Blumstein et al, 1975; Curry, 1967; Harris, 1978)]
The first are older than the second
— for dichotic vocal signals
the right ear was preferred at first, after a week, the left
ear?
[Springer,
Deutch, 1983]
Sense of touch:
— the left hand better
recognizes familiar objects, while right hand— unknown ones?
[Witelson, 1985;
Klimenko,
1984]
Old and new objects
Why
– varicose strikes women
more frequently and from the left side, and
gout—males and from the right side?
– the flounder lays more often on the left side?
– left-handedness is correlated with
sex?
– children up to 12 years old have longer right hip bone,
but after 13 the left one is getting bigger? (or at children
more often the right shoe feels more tight, while at
adults—the left one is?).
– there are 5 times more left-handed, stammering, crosseyed
and dyslectic among male infants?
– are the proportions of left-handed individuals higher among
both geniuses and imbeciles?
– do some diseases more often affect
left organs, and others—the right organs?
– in the case of the specialization of paired organs, is the
new function acquired by the right organ, and the old
function preserved in the left one (and the opposite is true
for cerebral hemispheres)?
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