Individual differences in the biological basis of androphilia in mice and men

Abstract

For nearly 60 years since the seminal paper from W.C Young and colleagues (Phoenix et al., 1959), the principles of sexual differentiation of the brain and behavior have maintained that female-typical sexual behaviors (e.g., lordosis) and sexual preferences (e.g., attraction to males) are the result of low androgen levels during development, whereas higher androgen levels promote male-typical sexual behaviors (e.g., mounting and thrusting) and preferences (e.g., attraction to females). However, recent reports suggest that the relationship between androgens and male-typical behaviors is not always linear – when androgen signaling is increased in male rodents, via exogenous androgen exposure or androgen receptor overexpression, males continue to exhibit male-typical sexual behaviors, but their sexual preferences are altered such that their interest in same-sex partners is increased. Analogous to this rodent literature, recent findings indicate that high level androgen exposure may contribute to the sexual orientation of a subset of gay men who prefer insertive anal sex and report more male-typical gender traits, whereas gay men who prefer receptive anal sex, and who on average report more gender nonconformity, present with biomarkers suggestive of low androgen exposure. Together, the evidence indicates that for both mice and men there is an inverted-U curvilinear relationship between androgens and sexual preferences, such that low and high androgen exposure increases androphilic sexual attraction, whereas relative mid-range androgen exposure leads to gynephilic attraction. Future directions for studying how individual differences in biological development mediate sexual behavior and sexual preferences in both mice and humans are discussed.