How much of sexual diversity is the result of nature versus nurture? Prevailing theories today lean heavily toward nature. Now a leading researcher in neuroscience and animal behavior shows how, in recent history, scientific claims about sex and gender differences have reflected the culture of the time. Although the conviction that genetics can explain everything is now widespread, the author demonstrates the interaction of culture and environment in the formation of behavioral traits and so provides an important corrective to popular notions of reductionism.

Starting with a summary of sex and gender studies, Rogers explains the error of sex biasing, especially the once-assumed inferiority of women. She then addresses several modern studies and investigations, some of which assert that sex and gender differences are the product of genetic inheritance and hormones. Rogers uses laboratory evidence from studies of animals that help illustrate the biologically fluid properties of sex and gender.

"Sexing the Brain" addresses a variety of topical questions: Are there sex differences in how we think and feel? Is language processed in different parts of the brain in men and women? Do social influences have a stronger influence on sexual behavior than sex hormone levels? Rogers concludes that "our biology does not bind us to remain the same.... We have the ability to change, and the future of sex differences belongs to us."

As a model organism, the chick has provided valuable insights into broad issues of development in higher animals. The complex interactions between genetic, hormonal and environmental factors which occur in the developing chick provide a potent argument against unitary causal explanations for differences in behaviour. Study of the behaviour of the chick is also relevant to poultry science and the welfare of domesticated birds. This book reviews research on the development of brain and behaviour in the chick and juxtaposes this with similar work on other avian and, to a lesser extent, mammalian species. It begins by outlining the developmental stages of the chick embryo, including the effects of environmental stimulation. Behaviour and the neurochemistry of development and memory formation in the posthatching period are then discussed. The transitions that occur during the first two to three weeks of posthatching life are described, particularly in terms of changing hemispheric dominance. The final chapter examines avian cognition and some issues of welfare for the domestic chicken. The book provides a thorough review of the subject and will interest workers in animal neurophysiology and behaviour, experimental psychologists, and poultry scientists.