ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2018
Male homosexuality and maternal immune responsivity to the Y-linked protein NLGN4Y.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 41 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 181 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Meta-Analyses of Fraternal and Sororal Birth Order Effects in Homosexual Pedophiles, Hebephiles, and Teleiophiles.Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Pooled it
- Sexual Orientation and Cognitive Ability: A Multivariate Meta-Analytic Follow-Up.Archives of sexual behavior · 2020Pooled it
- Sexual Orientation in Individuals With Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2020Pooled it
- Fraternal Birth Order Effect and Other Sibship Effects in Bisexual and Asexual Men and Women.Archives of sexual behavior · 2026Article
- A Pocket History of Research on Family Composition and Sexual Orientation.Archives of sexual behavior · 2026Article
- Reconsidering the Scope and Mechanisms of the Birth Order Effect on Sexual Orientation.Archives of sexual behavior · 2026Article
- Biodevelopmental Correlates of Sexual Orientation in Men: Evidence from a Polish Sample.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- Birth Order and Sibling Sex Ratio Predict Same-Sex Sexual Attraction in Iranian Cisgender and Transgender Adult Males and Females.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- Crusaders, monks and family fortunes: evolutionary models of male homosexuality and related phenomena.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Discovery of KDM5D as a novel biomarker for traumatic brain injury identified through bioinformatics analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Birth Order and Family Size of UK Biobank Subjects Identified as Asexual, Bisexual, Heterosexual, or Homosexual According to Self-Reported Sexual Histories.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- Examining the Fraternal Birth Order Effect and Sexual Orientation: Insights from an East European Population.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Fertility of Czech Gay and Straight Men, Women, and Their Relatives: Testing the Sexually Antagonistic Gene Hypothesis.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Male androphilia, fraternal birth order, and female fecundity in Samoa: A 10-y retrospective.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Using Animal Models to Study the Interplay Between the Biodevelopmental Pathways Underlying Human Sexual Orientation.Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Article
- The Biodevelopment of Sexual Orientation: Beyond the Known Horizon.Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Article
- Studying Fraternal Birth Order in Homosexual Women and Bisexual Men.Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Article
- New Data on Birth Order in Homosexual Men and Women and a Reply to Vilsmeier et al. (2021a, 2021b).Archives of sexual behavior · 2022Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We conducted a direct test of an immunological explanation of the finding that gay men have a greater number of older brothers than do heterosexual men. This explanation posits that some mothers develop antibodies against a Y-linked protein important in male brain development, and that this effect becomes increasingly likely with each male gestation, altering brain structures underlying sexual orientation in their later-born sons. Immune assays targeting two Y-linked proteins important in brain development-protocadherin 11 Y-linked (PCDH11Y) and neuroligin 4 Y-linked (NLGN4Y; isoforms 1 and 2)-were developed. Plasma from mothers of sons, about half of whom had a gay son, along with additional controls (women with no sons, men) was analyzed for male protein-specific antibodies. Results indicated women had significantly higher anti-NLGN4Y levels than men. In addition, after statistically controlling for number of pregnancies, mothers of gay sons, particularly those with older brothers, had significantly higher anti-NLGN4Y levels than did the control samples of women, including mothers of heterosexual sons. The results suggest an association between a maternal immune response to NLGN4Y and subsequent sexual orientation in male offspring.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.