Knickmeyer Rebecca Christine, Baron-Cohen Simon
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
J Child Neurol. 2006 Oct;21(10):825-45. doi: 10.1177/08830738060210101601.
Experiments in animals leave no doubt that androgens, including testosterone, produced by the testes in fetal and/or neonatal life act on the brain to induce sex differences in neural structure and function. In human beings, there is evidence supporting a female superiority in the ability to read nonverbal signals, specific language-related skills, and theory of mind. Even more striking than the sex differences seen in the typical population is the elevated occurrence of social and communicative difficulties in human males. One such condition, autism, occurs four times more frequently in boys than in girls. Recently, a novel theory known as the "extreme male brain" has been proposed. It suggests that the behaviors seen in autism are an exaggeration of typical sex differences and that exposure to high levels of prenatal testosterone might be a risk factor. In this article, we argue that prenatal and neonatal testosterone exposures are strong candidates for having a causal role in sexual dimorphism in human behavior, including social development, and as risk factors for conditions characterized by social impairments, particularly autism spectrum conditions.
动物实验毫无疑问地表明，睾丸在胎儿期和/或新生儿期产生的雄激素，包括睾酮，作用于大脑，诱导神经结构和功能的性别差异。在人类中，有证据支持女性在解读非语言信号、特定语言相关技能和心理理论能力方面具有优势。比在典型人群中看到的性别差异更引人注目的是，人类男性中社交和沟通困难的发生率更高。其中一种情况，自闭症，在男孩中的发生率是女孩的四倍。最近，一种名为“极端男性大脑”的新理论被提出。它表明，自闭症中出现的行为是典型性别差异的夸张表现，产前接触高水平的睾酮可能是一个风险因素。在本文中，我们认为，产前和新生儿期接触睾酮很可能在人类行为的性别二态性中起因果作用，包括社会发展，并且是具有社会障碍特征的疾病，特别是自闭症谱系疾病的风险因素。
