Lindsay Coome

University of Toronto | U of T · Department of Psychology

Sexual orientation is a core aspect of human experience and understanding its development is fundamental to psychology as a scientific discipline. Biological perspectives have played an important role in helping to uncover the processes that contribute to sexual orientation development. Research in this field has relied on a variety of populations,...

Sexual orientation is a core aspect of human experience and understanding its development is fundamental to psychology as a scientific discipline. Biological perspectives have played an important role in uncovering the processes that contribute to sexual orientation development. Research in this field has relied on a variety of populations, includi...

Studying the role of the prenatal endocrine environment in humans is challenging due to the ethical and practical considerations of measuring hormone levels of the developing fetus. Because it has been difficult to ascertain whether prenatal androgens contribute to the brain and behavior in humans as it does in non-human species, retrospective mark...

The biodevelopment of psychological sex differentiation is putatively reflected in several anthropometrics. We examined eight anthropometrics in 1404 Thai participants varying in sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity/expression: heterosexual men and women, gay men, lesbian women, bisexual women, sao praphet song (transgender birth-assigned m...

Neurohormonal theory argues that organizational effects of hormone exposure influence sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as sex differences in visuospatial cognition. This study examined mental rotation task (MRT) performance in a diverse Thai sample (N = 980). Thai culture has several third genders: individuals assigned male at birth...

Male androphilia (i.e., male sexual attraction to adult males) is considered an evolutionary paradox because it is partially influenced by genes and associated with decreased reproduction. Traits associated with attachment to genetic relatives (i.e., kin) could prompt increased kin-directed altruism, thereby offsetting decreased reproduction by hel...

Previous research has examined handedness and birth order to inform sexual orientation and gender identity/role expression development; however, sexual orientation and gender identity/role expression have rarely been disentangled to provide a more nuanced perspective. In Thailand, we investigated sexual orientation and gender identity simultaneousl...

Human same-sex sexual attraction is considered to be an evolutionary paradox. This paradox rests on same-sex attracted individuals having lowered direct reproduction, indicating reduced direct fitness of genes that influence same-sex attraction. Yet, relatively few empirical studies have examined the relation between same-sex sexual attraction and...

Sexual attraction is robustly sexually differentiated among mammalian species. Gonadal androgens acting perinatally and in adulthood are required for male-typical preference for female sexual cues. Recent evidence suggests that at the high extent of AR signaling, male mice show an increased preference for same-sex odor cues. These findings were fou...

Androphilia refers to sexual attraction toward adult males. Androphilic males’ female genetic relatives might offset the fitness cost of androphilia by having elevated numbers of offspring. Increased attractiveness relative to other women may enable these females to marry up the social hierarchy, providing greater access to resources to support mor...

Significance Studying individual differences in gender and sexual orientation provides insight into how early-life biology shapes brain and behavior. The literature identifies multiple biodevelopmental influences on male sexual orientation, but these influences are generally studied individually, and the potential for association or interaction bet...

Testosterone is the main endocrine mechanism mediating sexual differentiation of the mammalian brain, but testosterone signaling is complex and important mechanistic questions remain. Notably, it is unclear the extent to which testosterone acts via androgen receptors (AR) in this process, nor is it clear where in the body testosterone acts to produ...

Developmental theories of sexual orientation largely center on sexual differentiation processes. One hypothesis is that low prenatal androgens are associated with same-sex attraction in men. Using indirect measures of androgens (e.g., height, weight, pubertal onset), this hypothesis has received mixed support, suggesting there may be subgroups of g...

Previous clinical research on children who experience gender dysphoria has demonstrated links between marked childhood gender variant behaviour and several variables thought to provide a window on biological processes affecting brain sexual differentiation during the pre-/perinatal period. These variables include handedness, birth order, and birth...

Androphilia is associated with an elevated number of older brothers among natal males. This association, termed the fraternal birth order effect, has been observed among gay men who exhibit marked gender nonconformity. Gender nonconformity has been linked to gay men's preferred anal sex role. The present study investigated whether these two lines o...

The spinal nucleus of the bulbocavernosus (SNB) is a sexually dimorphic neuromuscular system in which masculinization of cell number is thought to depend on perinatal androgen action in non-neural targets, but masculinization of cell size is thought to depend primarily on adult androgen action on SNB cells themselves. In order to test these hypothe...

Developmental theories of the biological basis of sexual orientation suggest that sexually differentiated psychological and behavioural traits should be linked with sexual orientation. Subgroups of gay men delineated by anal sex roles differ according to at least one such trait: gender expression. The present study assessed the hypothesis that hand...

In mice, male-typical preference for female olfactory cues results largely from sexually differentiated testosterone production. It is currently unclear on which cells and tissues testosterone acts to produce male-typical preference for female olfactory cues. To further address the site of androgen action on olfactory preference, we have developed...

Testosterone, acting via estrogenic and androgenic pathways, is the major endocrine mechanism promoting sexual differentiation of the mammalian nervous system and behavior, but we have an incomplete knowledge of which cells and tissues mediate these effects. To distinguish between neural and non-neural actions of androgens in sexual differentiation...

Testosterone is the major endocrine mechanism promoting sexual differentiation of the mammalian nervous system and behavior, but we have an incomplete knowledge of which cells and tissues mediate these androgenic effects. To distinguish between neural and non-neural actions of androgens in sexual differentiation of brain and behavior, we generated...