quote:

---

All of the test subjects processed the face information in the same manner, using the brain's visual, learning and memory centers. The only difference occurred in the brain's reward circuitry, which involves the thalamus gland and the orbitofrontal cortex, located behind the forehead and eyes.

For heterosexual men and homosexual women, this part of the brain activated more when subjects viewed female faces. Conversely, homosexual men and heterosexual women showed more activity in this same region when they viewed male faces.

Ishai said that "gender per se cannot explain these patterns of activation, because then all women would have responded more to male faces and all men would have responded more to female faces."

She added, "My novel findings suggest that the novel response is modulated by the sexual preference of the subject."

---