Giftedness Linked to Prenatal Exposure of Higher Levels of Testosterone

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Mar. 12, 2011) — A longstanding debate as to whether genius is a byproduct of good genes or good environment has an upstart challenger that may take the discussion in an entirely new direction. University of Alberta researcher Marty Mrazik says being bright may be due to an excess level of a natural hormone.

Mrazik, a professor in the Faculty of Education's educational psychology department, and a colleague from Rider University in the U.S., have published a paper in Roeper Review linking giftedness (having an IQ score of 130 or higher) to prenatal exposure of higher levels of testosterone. Mrazik hypothesizes that, in the same way that physical and cognitive deficiencies can be developed in utero, so, too, could similar exposure to this naturally occurring chemical result in giftedness.

"There seems to be some evidence that excessive prenatal exposure to testosterone facilitates increased connections in the brain, especially in the right prefrontal cortex," said Mrazik. "That's why we see some intellectually gifted people with distinct personality characteristics that you don't see in the normal population."

Mrazik's notion came from observations made during clinical assessments of gifted individuals. He and his fellow researcher observed some specific traits among the subjects. This finding stimulated a conversation on the role of early development in setting the foundation for giftedness.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110311153549.htm

[Kali]

1. ...

this has :popcorn: potential

[bemildred]

2. Indeed.

How is that testosterone getting into the womb there anyway? Are we going to have testosterone injections for fetuses? Will there be fetal testosterone tests?
:popcorn:

[phantom power]

3. There's genes, there's nuturing, and then there is development...

which is of course driven by genes, but can also be influenced by tons of other things during the process. Many of the defects and diseases we attribute to "genes" are really things that happened during development.

[phylny]

4. Hmm. You wanna know something? It just might be true.

Our oldest daughter was identified as gifted. Her IQ is 135. She also has Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. I have little doubt that I had more testosterone than the typical woman, and that hormone was passed on to our three daughters.

Interesting theory.

[bemildred]

5. I have read that fetal testosterone affects the relative lengths of index and second fingers,

and toes. If the second finger/toe is longer than the index finger/first toe (not the thumb/big toe), that indicates high high fetal testosterone exposure. The two central digits would be longer than the two on the outside.

[gkhouston]

7. ? I thought it was common for central digits to be longer.

Is this like Lake Woebegon, where all the children are above average? :shrug:

[bemildred]

8. It might well be common, I have no idea.

The issue was relative testosterone levels and relative length of digits. It doesn't seem like a controversial idea to me that hormone levels could affect fetal growth in various ways.

[LeftishBrit]

6. I've read the article in question; and it's really just a hypothesis

There is no firm evidence at this point that prenatal testosterone is linked to greater giftedness. And the author of this paper doesn't seem to have done any direct studies of the matter. His theories seem to come from very indirect associations, and lots of assumptions:

(1) Baron-Cohen and colleagues have found that there is some association between prenatal testosterone levels and having higher spatial skills and poorer verbal skills and lower theory of mind a few years later. A lot of this seems to simply reflect that boys have more prenatal testosterone than girls and also tend to be a bit slower to talk, a bit less socially mature, and a bit better at spatial skills than girls. However, there do seem to be some such associations even within genders, at least in some studies, - but they are quite small. Many other things are associated to a much greater extent with verbal, social and spatial abilities.

(2) Geschwind, a neuropsychologist in the 1960s, claimed that prenatal testosterone inhibits left hemisphere development, and thus leads to greater left-handedness and a higher risk for dyslexia in boys than girls. But - though it's true that boys are more likely to be left-handed than girls; that they are also more likely to be dyslexic; and that there is *some* association between left-handedness and dyslexia - this theory has never been proved one way or another.

(3) A few people claim that gifted children are more uneven in abilities than other children, and in particular are better spatially than verbally. However, this is not supported by the evidence. Mathematically gifted pupils do tend to be better spatially than verbally, but the reverse, not surprisingly, is found for verbally gifted pupils. And unevenness of ability is far commoner in *all* children than is commonly recognized. One study in the 90s showed that 40% of unselected children have IQ discrepancies of at least 11 points, in either direction, between verbal and spatial IQ.

(4) Some studies have found that gifted people show more right-hemisphere activation in certain tasks than do less gifted people. However, this could well be due to levels of expertise, and the nature of strategies used, rather than to anything connected with prenatal testosterone. It has been found in quite a few studies that brain activation patterns are very influenced by experience, and do not necessarily imply a genetic or prenatal origin. No studies have linked prenatal testosterone with such later right-hemisphere involvement - so it really is all very speculative.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

9. What if Mom smoked like a furnace???

Hard core unfiltered Marlboros. Did that make me stupid???

:shrug: