Schaadt Gesa, Hesse Volker, Friederici Angela D
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology, Leipzig, Germany; Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Psychology, Berlin, Germany.
German Center for Growth, Development and Health Encouragement in Childhood and Adolescents, Berlin, Germany; Charité-University Medicine, Institute for Experimental Pediatric Endocrinology, Berlin, Germany.
Brain Lang. 2015 Feb;141:70-6. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2014.11.015. Epub 2014 Dec 22.
Sex differences in the development of cognitive behavior such as language have long been of great research interest. Lately, researchers have started to associate language function and brain differences with diverse sex hormones (e.g., testosterone/estradiol). However, results concerning the impact of early postnatal sex hormone concentration on the child's later language development are rare. Here, we analyze the impact of testosterone and estradiol in girls and boys as well as their neurophysiological phonemic discrimination at age 5months on language development at age 4years. Interestingly, we found strong positive estradiol and negative testosterone impact on later language performance at age 4years, which was true for both girls and boys. These results demonstrate that postnatal sex hormone surge might be viewed as one factor determining later language development, independent of gender.
诸如语言等认知行为发展中的性别差异长期以来一直是研究的热点。最近，研究人员开始将语言功能和大脑差异与多种性激素（如睾酮/雌二醇）联系起来。然而，关于出生后早期性激素浓度对儿童后期语言发展影响的研究结果却很少。在此，我们分析了5个月大时女孩和男孩体内睾酮和雌二醇及其神经生理音位辨别能力对4岁时语言发展的影响。有趣的是，我们发现雌二醇对4岁时后期语言表现有强烈的正向影响，而睾酮则有负向影响，这在女孩和男孩中都是如此。这些结果表明，出生后性激素激增可能被视为决定后期语言发展的一个因素，与性别无关。
