Researchers Say Sexual Orientation Can Change

CitizenLink ^ | 9-13-07 | Devon Williams

[Wuli]

Have you ever heard of humor?

[DogByte6RER]

ping for later

Note: Of course sexual orientation can change.

Senator Larry Craig’s sexual orinetation changes each time he steps into an airport.

And don’t forget about Ellen DeGenerate’s former gal-pal Anne Heche...

[Maelstrom]

Liberals are too...but they don’t realize it for some reason:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1640436-4,00.html

Addiction is such a harmful behavior, in fact, that evolution should have long ago weeded it out of the population: if it’s hard to drive safely under the influence, imagine trying to run from a saber-toothed tiger or catch a squirrel for lunch. And yet, says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of NIDA and a pioneer in the use of imaging to understand addiction, “the use of drugs has been recorded since the beginning of civilization. Humans in my view will always want to experiment with things to make them feel good.”

That’s because drugs of abuse co-opt the very brain functions that allowed our distant ancestors to survive in a hostile world. Our minds are programmed to pay extra attention to what neurologists call salience—that is, special relevance. Threats, for example, are highly salient, which is why we instinctively try to get away from them. But so are food and sex because they help the individual and the species survive. Drugs of abuse capitalize on this ready-made programming. When exposed to drugs, our memory systems, reward circuits, decision-making skills and conditioning kick in—salience in overdrive—to create an all consuming pattern of uncontrollable craving. “Some people have a genetic predisposition to addiction,” says Volkow. “But because it involves these basic brain functions, everyone will become an addict if sufficiently exposed to drugs or alcohol.”

That can go for nonchemical addictions as well. Behaviors, from gambling to shopping to sex, may start out as habits but slide into addictions. Sometimes there might be a behavior-specific root of the problem. Volkow’s research group, for example, has shown that pathologically obese people who are compulsive eaters exhibit hyperactivity in the areas of the brain that process food stimuli—including the mouth, lips and tongue. For them, activating these regions is like opening the floodgates to the pleasure center. Almost anything deeply enjoyable can turn into an addiction, though.

[punster]

I would suggest that further verification is needed. The procedure I would suggest is:

1. Before any reorientation therapy is commenced, do a PET Scan to determine the metabolic response of the hypothalamus to human pheromones.

2. Repeat the process, after the reorientation therapy. The goal is to determine if there has actually been a change in the response pattern to the pheromones.

Recent research has shown a difference in the metabolic response, between heterosexual men and heterosexual women. The research has also shown that homosexual males respond in a similar fashion to heterosexual women.

There are two compounds considered to be pheromones in humans. One is a metabolite of estrogen, and is found in the urine of women. The other is a metabolite of testosterone, and found in the perspiration of men.

Whenever a heterosexual female smells the male pheromone, the metabolic activity of the hypothalamus will light up like a Christmas tree. However, there is no response to the female pheromone.

Whenever a heterosexual male smells the female pheromone, the metabolic activity of the hypothalamus will light up like like a Christmas tree. However, there is no response to the male pheromone.

The research showed the reactions were reversed in the homosexual males. When they smelled the female pheromone, there was no response. However, when they smelled the male pheromone, the metabolic activity of their hypothalamus would light up like the proverbial Christmas tree.

So, this would be a good test, to determine if the alleged cures have indeed, changed anything.