Sex Hormones Influence Human Cognitive Pattern
DOREEN KIMURA
Neuroendocrinology Letters,2002; 23(suppl 4):67-77
The major sex differences in cognitive skills are summarized, and
the role of sex hormones in early organization and possible
maintenance of these differences is discussed. Using animal models
and human hormonal anomalies, a good case can be made that prenatal
androgens strongly influence adult cognitive pattern, though the
relation between baseline androgens and spatial ability, for
example, need not be linear. Moreover, men and women remain
sensitive to variation in hormonal state, as evidenced in the
fluctuations in cognitive and motor performance across natural
diurnal, menstrual and circannual rhythms. Evidence from
administration of exogenous hormones in humans is more equivocal,
though this field ultimately should yield useful information.
http://www.nel.edu/23_s4/NEL231002R07_Kimura.htm