Journalism
The piece below was written for a Science Communication class in the style of a news article
Click here to view articles I wrote for UCSB's student-run newspaper, The Daily Nexus
New Brain Research Supports Claim that Female-to-Male Transgender People Feel Their Breasts Don’t Belong To Them
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April 30, 2018 | Zareena Zaidi
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Transgender people may not feel ownership over their sex-specific body parts due to differences in neurological activity, according to a new study published by the International Academy of Sex Research.
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For many Female-to-Male transgender individuals, their breasts feel like an “alien” part of their body that does not belong.
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The study examined Female-to-Male transgender people and how their brains responded differently to stimulation of a female-specific body part — their breasts — compared to a cisgender female (those who were born and identify as female).
Researchers set out to study this phenomenon by comparing brain reactions to stimulation of the breasts and a neutral body part — the hands — in both transgender and cisgender groups.
A female researcher used a plastic device to first tap a breast and then a hand of each participant, while simultaneously using scanners to detect and map brain activity.
Hand stimulation did not differ among transgender participants and cisgender females, suggesting that activation of a neutral body part does not differ between the two groups. However, brain activity in response to breast stimulation differed between transgender individuals and control females.
Some of these differences included lower connectivity within the brain and a lack of integration in areas related to perception and sensation.
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These findings reflect the claims that transgender individuals feel as though a sex-specific body part does not belong to their body, and provide some preliminary material evidence for this phenomenon.
It is important to note that transgender individuals still feel sensation in their breasts. However, their feeling of ownership over their breasts is lower compared to cisgender women.
The study included sixteen participants: eight transgender women and eight cisgender females.
Dr. Laura Case, lead researcher of the study, said “previous work had focused on overall brain structure, or response to erotic stimuli, or traditionally male vs female cognitive strengths. Body representation in my opinion gets closer to where trans people intersect with the medical system — feeling their bodies are different than they should be or than they want them. I have been seeing some more neuroimaging work on body representation in trans people recently so I hope it will make an impact on understanding of trans people and their medical care.”