Male DNA has for the first time been found inside the female brain, according to new research led by a Canadian scientist. <\/p>\n
No, the finding doesn't explain why women sometimes know what their husbands are thinking. <\/p>\n
But it could lead to refining what \"the self,\" biologically speaking at least, really means. <\/p>\n
Plus, in an unexpected finding, the researchers found that women with Alzheimer's disease had less male DNA in their brains -- and in lower concentrations in the brain region's most affected by the memory-robbing disease -- than women without Alzheimer's. <\/p>\n
Observers said the finding also raises the hypothesis that, if male DNA can infiltrate a woman's brain, it might have some \"masculinizing\" affect on the female brain. <\/p>\n
And, if that's so, \"what consequences does this have on how the brain functions -- in other words, thinking and behaviour?\" said neuroscientist Dr. Sandra Witelson, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton. <\/p>\n
Appearing in the latest edition of the journal, PLOS ONE, the study is the first to describe the presence of male \"microchimerism\" in women's brains. <\/p>\n
Microchimerism is the \"intermingling\" of small numbers of cells or portions of DNA in a person or animal from a genetically different inpidual. <\/p>\n
In this case, the male DNA found in women's brains most likely came from cells from a pregnancy with a baby boy. <\/p>\n
But women can acquire male DNA without ever having a son. In women without boys, male DNA can come from sharing her mother's womb with a male twin, from a non-irradiated blood transfusion and possibly even from an older sibling. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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