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Homosexuality could perhaps be one of the premier topics on the minds of Americans today. It is everywhere around us, from our places of work to on our TV set at night. But what is it that makes a person like the same sex as opposed to the opposite sex? There are many views that can be taken as to why people are homosexual. There are however, five psychological perspectives that generally cover the spectrum of debates on homosexuality. The first perspective, Neuroscience, looks at how the brain creates emotions, memories, sensory experiences, and in this case, sexuality. Much of the research done in this field looks at the hypothalamus, the area of the brain that gives us our sexuality (Johnson, 2003; Thompson and Devine, 2003). In 1990, in an investigation by D.F. Swaab, found that the hypothalamus of homosexual males was larger than in heterosexual males, as well as being structured differently. More specifically, the suprachiasmatic nucleus was twice the size in the homosexual than the heterosexual. Laura S. Allen added to this finding with a similar study of the hypothalamus. Her conclusion states that the anterior commissure of a homosexual male’s hypothalamus being twice the size as a heterosexual male’s.
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