Spatial abilities following prenatal androgen abnormality: targeting and mental rotations performance in individuals with congenital adrenal hyperplasia
Spatial abilities following prenatal androgen abnormality: targeting and mental rotations performance in individuals with congenital adrenal hyperplasia
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DOI：
10.1016/s0306-4530(02)00121-x
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发表时间：
2003-11-01
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Brook, C
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hines, M;Fane, BA;Brook, C
在大多数哺乳动物中，表现出性别差异的行为在生命早期受到雄激素的影响。在当前的研究中，研究了雄激素影响人类空间能力发展的假设。参与者包括 40 名患有先天性肾上腺增生症 (CAH) 的女性和 29 名男性，CAH 是一种导致产前开始肾上腺雄激素过度产生的遗传性疾病，以及 CAH 患者的 29 名未受影响的女性和 30 名未受影响的男性亲属。参与者的年龄范围为 12 至 45 岁。空间能力的测量包括两项心理旋转任务和两项目标任务，所有这些都显示出巨大的性别差异，在未受影响的相对对照中男性更受青睐。患有 CAH 的女性（产前暴露于高于正常水平的雄激素）在目标任务上比未受影响的女性表现更好，并且在这方面与未受影响的男性和患有 CAH 的男性相似。然而，患有 CAH 的女性在心理旋转能力方面的表现并不比未受影响的女性更好。患有 CAH 的男性在目标任务中表现出不变的表现，而在心理旋转任务中表现出受损。结果根据经验和荷尔蒙对不同空间能力的贡献的差异，以及荷尔蒙对目标和心理旋转能力影响的关键时期可能存在的差异进行了讨论。具体来说，我们推测，尽管雄激素可能会影响产前的靶向能力，但如果激素影响心理旋转能力的发展，它们会在其他时间（也许是在出生后的前六个月）这样做。 (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. 保留所有权利。
In most mammals, behaviors that show sex differences are influenced by androgen during early life. In the current study, the hypothesis that androgen influences the development of human spatial abilities was investigated. Participants included 40 females and 29 males with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a genetic disorder that causes overproduction of adrenal androgens beginning prenatally, and 29 unaffected female and 30 unaffected male relatives of individuals with CAH. Participants ranged in age from 12-45 years. Measures of spatial abilities included two mental rotations tasks and two targeting tasks, all of which showed large sex differences favoring males in the unaffected relative controls. Females with CAH (exposed to higher than normal levels of androgen prenatally) performed better than unaffected females on the targeting tasks, and resembled unaffected males and males with CAH in this respect. However, females with CAH did not perform better than unaffected females on the measures of mental rotations abilities. Males with CAH showed unaltered performance on the targeting tasks, and impaired performance on the mental rotations tasks. Results are discussed in terms of differences in experiential and hormonal contributions to different spatial abilities, as well as in terms of possible differences in critical periods for hormonal influences on targeting versus mental rotations abilities. Specifically, we speculate that, although androgen may influence targeting abilities prenatally, if hormones influence the development of mental rotations ability, they do so at some other time, perhaps during the first six months of postnatal life. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.