Brosnan Mark, Walker Ian
Department of Psychology, University of Bath, UK.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2009 Jan;39(1):164-71. doi: 10.1007/s10803-008-0615-1. Epub 2008 Jul 4.
Of particular interest to studying the etiology of Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) is the potential for multiple risk factors to combine through non-random mechanisms-assortative mating. Both genetic influences and a high-testosterone prenatal environment have been implicated in the etiology of ASDs, and given that waist-hip ratio (WHR) is indicative of a woman's circulating testosterone level, a man attracted to higher-than-average WHR women is likely to have a higher-than-average prenatal testosterone exposure for their offspring. We show that whereas fathers of children without ASD show a statistically reliable preference for WHRs at the low end of the normal range, indicative of women with low testosterone levels, fathers of children diagnosed with ASD do not consistently show this preference.
研究自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）病因时，一个特别值得关注的点是多种风险因素通过非随机机制——选型交配——相互结合的可能性。遗传影响和高睾酮的产前环境都与ASD的病因有关，鉴于腰臀比（WHR）可反映女性体内循环睾酮水平，被高于平均WHR的女性所吸引的男性，其后代在产前接触到的睾酮水平可能高于平均水平。我们发现，没有患ASD的孩子的父亲，在统计学上表现出对正常范围下限的WHR有可靠偏好，这表明他们偏好睾酮水平低的女性，而被诊断为患有ASD的孩子的父亲则并非始终表现出这种偏好。
