Neuroscience, gender, and “development to” and “from”: The example of toy preferences

Abstract

“Development to” perspectives implicitly or explicitly assume that experience influences the individual’s development “to” a genetically encoded phenotype. By contrast, “development from” perspectives assume no genetically pre-specified developmental pathway, but the co-construction of the phenotype from the complex and dynamic interaction between environmental stimuli, genotype, and the organization of the nervous system at each developmental phase. This chapter examines the “brain organization” account of sex differences in toy preferences in light of challenges to the “development to” perspective, of which the brain organization account is an example. It is argued that there are significant methodological and conceptual issues, and empirical uncertainties, regarding each of four categories of evidence commonly cited as support for the brain organization account. The scientific and ethical need for research from a “development from” perspective for future investigations of this politically important and socially sensitive scientific question is discussed.