How Do Studies of Females Exposed to High Testosterone - Literature review Example

How do Studies of Females exposed to High Testosterone Studies of females exposed to high testosterone levels prenatally contribute to our comprehension of sex disparities in conduct and cognition through revealing how prenatal hormones could be the principal determinant of adult sexual direction. The studies also show how these hormones could be the determinant of a co-factor with genes, ecological as well as social conditions, or biological factors. For instance, Heila et al. (2011) claims that exposure to testosterone is a cause of men surpassing women in mental orientation considerably. In this study, Heil and others reveals that female animals’ fetus situated amid two males is exposed to more testosterone levels. Their findings support the theory of an effect of prenatal testosterone on the performance of mental rotation. Jadva et al. (2010) found the same orientations being influenced by the prenatal hormones because infants preferred toys, and colors differently. This reveals that the prenatal testosterone levels influence how well we understand sex differences. According to Jadva et al. (2010), the differences in preferences for toys and dolls are because of exposure to androgens. Mathews et al. (2009) after exposing subjects to abnormal androgen levels prenatally because of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) found that males with the hyperplasia had decreased physical aggression. Both hyperplasia females and males displayed variation in three of the four constructs evaluated including personality factor inventory, dominance, Reinish aggression, and Mebon’s questionnaire. The exposure to prenatal androgens may change some, although not all, personality traits in male-typical orientation in females (Mathews et al., 2009). The exposure may reduce certain features of male-typical personality growth in males, but personality disparities in males with hyperplasia may associate with illness (Mathews et al., 2009). After examining children for their play preferences with CAH together with an unaffected control Pasterski et al. (2011) found that the two groups showed preferences for the same-sex playmates as well as sex-typical play styles. Boys mostly chose their playmates depending on the kind of play rather than gender of the playmate both for the affected and healthy. On the other hand, girls chose playmates based on gender as well as style of the play when picking a playmate for the healthy ones. Affected girls displayed a similar pattern to the boys. They made masculine decisions than the affected girls, such as choosing boy’s playing styles . Pasterski et al. (2011) results propose that exposure to prenatal androgen contribute to sex disparities in the selection of playmate as seen in typically growing children as well as preferences in play style coerce sex segregation in play amid boys and girls under the influence of high prenatal androgens levels. According to Hines (2010), male as well as female fetuses vary in concentrations of testosterone starting as early as the eighth gestation week. The early hormone disparities put forth permanent effects on the behavior and development of the brain. Hines (2010) claims that modern study, such as Dewar (2010) reveals that hormones are specifically significant in the growth of sex-typical childhood conduct, encompassing toy preferences. According to Hines (2010), exposure to prenatal testosterone may affect sexual direction as well as gender identity. Sometimes, the exposure to the prenatal testosterone affects the characteristics that relate sex to cognitive, moral as well as personality. Slutske et al. (2011) after examining the proof for exposure to prenatal androgens in contrast with sibling imitation as a likely cause of disparities in sensational levels (these are personality levels explaining the tendency toward different, new and intense sensations e.g. levels of engaging in a particular behavior) found that the exposure could serve a great purpose in the sex disparities in the personality characteristics. Researchers claim that increased levels of irregular testosterone are related to improved spatial capabilities amid females, but in males, the spatial capabilities are improved by lower irregular levels of testosterone according to Vuoksimaa et al. (2010). These authors suggest that in children with CAH, the organizational influences of increased prenatal testosterone may describe the enhanced spatial test performance in females as well as damaged spatial test performance in males. These prenatal testosterones have a positive association with the performance of mental rotation test in healthy girls. According to Sapienza et al. (2009), women averse risk more than men do. After investigating if amid and within, variations of gender in financial risk repugnance was reported by disparity in the concentrations of salivary testosterone as well as in markers of exposure to prenatal testosterone. Women with more testosterone had reduced risk aversion than men. At a lower level of the same, the gender disparities were no more thereby signifying that there is nonlinear influence of testosterone in spite of the gender. Sapienza and colleagues concluded that testosterone influences the way individuals organize, activate decisions, and make lasting choices. According to Pfannkuche et al. (2009) research, sex disparities exist in the orientation of lateralization (direction of function on the right or left side of the brain) for humans, as likened to non-human mammals. Their study however did not support the exposure to prenatal testosterone as an influence of the lateralization orientation in humans. However, different behavior was found in non-human mammals as well as in birds. Zaidi (2010) while examining why males and females think differently found that perception, cognition, neural as well as memory studies explain the disparities. This is because males and females use dissimilar brain parts to encode memories, sense emotions, and identify faces among others. Dewar (2009) claims that although the disparities between girls and boys in toy preferences may be sociological, prenatal development also has a role. Current studies Dewar (2009) examined showed different measurements of testosterone levels in pregnant women’s amniotic fluid. The studies tracked the children for numerous years after delivery. Their findings revealed that male fetuses had higher levels of testosterone, although female fetuses had some testosterone exposures. Fetal testosterones were connected to rough-and tumble play. According to Auyeung et al. (2009), the higher the level of testosterone, the more probable the child was to display male-typical characteristics. All the studies above have results, which are consistent with researches on nonhumans’ animals. Artificial boosting (administering external prenatal testosterone to girls) of male hormone levels in growing girls causes them to involve in more male-typical play (Auyeung et al., 2009). The vice versa is also true. However, these studies have some limitations. For instance, some studies did not find the influence of prenatal testosterone on a child’s play, but found the effect on nonhuman animals and birds. This reveals the inconsistence in these findings. The dependence on maternal reports, especially mothers in most of the studies may lead to wrong results because of the difference in interpretations (Pfannkuche et al., 2009). Most of the studies reviewed above used nonhuman animals, such as birds for experiment on prenatal testosterone contribution to sex disparities in conduct and cognition. Birds for example are proper model for such experiment, but may limit the outcome. For instance, their motor behavior during the adult stage is not comparable to humans. The extent to which motor biases in animals are similar to humans’ fine motor control is hard to identify. It is also hard to measure emotions in animals and thus hard to compare such studies with humans. In future, researchers should come up with methods for overcoming these limitations. References Auyeaung B, Baron-Cohen S, Ashwin E, Knickmeyer R, Taylor, K., Hackett, G., & Hines, M. (2009). Fetal testosterone predicts sexually differentiated childhood behavior in girls and boys. Psychological Science, 20(2): 144-148. Retrieved from http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/docs/papers/2009_Auyeung_etal_PsycholSci.pdf Dewar, G. (2009). Girl toys, boy toys, and parenting: the science toy preferences in children. Retrieved from http://www.parentingscience.com/girl-toys-and-parenting.html Heila, M., Kavsekb, M., Rolkec, B., Bested, C., & Jansene, P. 2010. Mental rotation in female fraternal twins: evidence for intra-uterine hormone transfer? Biological Psychology, 86, 90–93 Hines, M. (2010). Sex-related variation in human behavior and the brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14 (10), 10 Jadva, V., Hines, M., & Golombok, S. (2010). Infants’ preferences for toys, colors, and shapes: sex differences and similarities. Arch Sex Behav., 39, 1261–1273 Mathews, G.A., Fane, B.A., Conway, G.S., Brook, C.G., & Hines, M. (2009). Personality and congenital adrenal hyperplasia: possible effects of prenatal androgen exposure. Hormones and Behavior, 55, 285–291 Pasterski, V., Geffner, M., Brain, C., Hindmarsh, P., Brook, C., & Hines, M. (2011). Prenatal hormones and childhood sex segregation: Playmate and play style preferences in girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Hormones and Behavior, 59, 549–555 Pfannkuche, K., Bouma, A., Groothuis, T. (2009). A meta-analysis in human and other animal species-does testosterone affect lateralization of brain and behavior? Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 364, 929-942. Retrieved from http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/364/1519/929.full.pdf+html Slutske, W., Bascom, E., Meier, M., Medland, S., & Martin, N. (2011). Sensation seeking in females from opposite- versus same-sex twin pairs: hormone transfer or sibling imitation? Behav Genet, 41, 533–542 Sapienza, P., Zingales, L., & Maestripieric, D. (2009). How do studies of females exposed to high testosterone levels pretanatally contribute to our understanding of sex differences in behavior and cognition? PANS, 106 (36), 15268–15273. Retrieved from http://www.pnas.org/content/106/36/15268.full.pdf+html Vuoksimaa, E., Kaprio, J., Kremen, W., Hokkanen, L., Viken, R., Tuulio-Henriksson, A., & Rose, R. (2010). Having a male co-twin masculinizes mental rotation performance in females. Psychological Science, 21(8), 1069–1071 Zaidi, Z. (2010). Gender differences in human brain: a review. The Open Anatomy Journal, 2, 37-55. Retrieved from http://www.benthamscience.com/open/toanatj/articles/V002/37TOANATJ.pdf Read More