The Brain Of Bisexuals Has Its Own Characteristics

The human brain contains many characteristics that have to do with the behavioral patterns of different types of people. In some way, the way in which the neurons in our brain activate and communicate with each other reflects the propensities and tendencies that are reflected in our way of acting. And yes, this It is also true in the case of different sexual orientations

So the brains of heterosexual and homosexual people show some differences in the way they function in certain contexts, for example.

However, the brains of bisexual people (who are attracted to men and women, although not necessarily with the same frequency or intensity) do not show a mixture of the activation patterns of the other two, as one might think. According to recent research whose results have been published in the journal, bisexuality is associated with its own neurobiological characteristics that are qualitatively different from those of homosexuals and heterosexuals.

The brain in bisexuality

The study in question, led by psychologists and psychiatrists from Northwestern University and the University of Magdeburg, has shown that the brains of bisexual people present some characteristics in their functioning that, under certain conditions, allows them to be distinguished from the rest of the population

This difference, however, does not have to be evident in any situation, such as sleeping or solving a mathematical problem. The context in which its existence has been proven is in the perception of sexually charged images. This is important, since a difference in brain activation patterns shows that the brain is physically different to others. In neuroscience, there is no distinction between software and hardware: the way in which the different parts of the brain “light up” shows us how the networks of neurons from which they are made are woven together.

How was the research carried out?

This research involved the participation of almost 80 people: 28 bisexuals, 26 heterosexuals and 28 homosexuals. All of these individuals were between 25 and 50 years old and of different ethnicities and origins, so that the sample included different cultural variables. Furthermore, in the case of bisexual people, it was a requirement to have had at least one lover of each sex to participate.

On the other hand, the sexual orientation of each person was recorded from a questionnaire based on the Kinsey scale, which established a scale that ranges from exclusively homosexual to exclusively heterosexual, passing through some intermediate degrees.

From that point, Each of the participants watched a series of videos with adult content in which both heterosexual and homosexual sexual scenes appeared. During this phase, the researchers monitored the participants’ brain activation patterns using magnetic resonance imaging.

The parts of the brain most activated in bisexual people

The results of the research showed a curious pattern of neuronal activation that depended on the sexual orientation of each participant. Specifically, the firing patterns of a part of the brain linked to the basal ganglia called the striatum, specifically its lower or ventral part This area of ​​the striatum is related to the mental processes of motivation and the search for pleasure, so it also has an important role in the experimentation of sexuality.

As predicted, this area responded by showing a preference for images in which the opposite sex appeared, in heterosexuals, and in people of the same sex, in the case of homosexuals. In the case of bisexuals, however, this area of ​​the brain (and secondarily, some others) behaved as if the differentiation between the category “man” and “woman” was not important ; Somehow, the border between those two concepts was blurred, in the same way that little importance can be given to the color of others’ eyes.

Of course, reactions of pure bisexuality, understood as one in which there is no clear preference for men or women, were rare. Judging by the images obtained through brain scans, activation of the brain regions of bisexuals is generally showed a tendency to find one of the two sexes more attractive