Dr. Gillian Einstein currently teaches courses at the University of Toronto related to neuroscience and psychology, health and illness, and sex and gender.
PSY495H1: Sex and the Brain
This course explores the scientific literature underlying the concept that female/male, gay/straight, and transgendered behaviors are based on brain differences. Original scientific papers will be read in close detail for design and interpretation of the experiments. The goal is to gain an understanding of the science underlying sex/gender differences, popular conceptions of sex, and the identification of the sexual brain.
- Sexual differentiation
- Estrogens and androgens
- Connection of the brain with the rest of the body (HPG Axis)
- Relationship between brain and sexual behaviors
- Sex differences and cognition
- Sex and sexuality/gender identification
PSY5112: Sex Differences in Brain and Behaviour
This course will engage with the historic and contemporary literature in the field of Hormones and Behaviour following the development of the field from Beach’s early rodent studies to current studies using brain imaging to identify differences in gay, straight, and transgendered human brains. Primarily dealing with central nervous system anatomy and its relationship to sexually dimorphic behaviours, this course emphasizes the role of steroid hormones and experience in shaping differences in behaviour, cognition, and identity. In following this field into the present, students will gain an appreciation for changing norms in research, how a field of scientific knowledge develops, sex differences in the brain, and the role of steroid hormones in shaping cognition, mental health, and neurological disorders. Students will present papers in the text as well as of their own choosing.
On successful completion of the course students will be able to:
- appreciate how a field of scientific knowledge develops,
- understand changing norms in one area of neuroscience research,
- be familiar with sex differences in the brain and in behaviour,
- learn about the role of steroid hormones and genes in shaping cognition, mental health, and neurological disorders
- know how to design an experiment to study sex differences