Ahrenfeldt Linda, Petersen Inge, Johnson Wendy, Christensen Kaare
The Danish Twin Registry, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Biodemography, The University of Southern Denmark, 5000 Odense, Denmark.
Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
Horm Behav. 2015 Mar;69:123-31. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2015.01.007. Epub 2015 Feb 2.
Testosterone is an important hormone in the sexual differentiation of the brain, contributing to differences in cognitive abilities between males and females. For instance, studies in clinical populations such as females with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) who are exposed to high levels of androgens in utero support arguments for prenatal testosterone effects on characteristics such as visuospatial cognition and behaviour. The comparison of opposite-sex (OS) and same-sex (SS) twin pairs can be used to help establish the role of prenatal testosterone. However, although some twin studies confirm a masculinizing effect of a male co-twin regarding for instance perception and cognition it remains unclear whether intra-uterine hormone transfer exists in humans. Our aim was to test the potential influences of testosterone on academic performance in OS twins. We compared ninth-grade test scores and teacher ratings of OS (n=1812) and SS (n=4054) twins as well as of twins and singletons (n=13,900) in mathematics, physics/chemistry, Danish, and English. We found that males had significantly higher test scores in mathematics than females (.06-.15 SD), whereas females performed better in Danish (.33-.49 SD), English (.20 SD), and neatness (.45-.64 SD). However, we did not find that OS females performed better in mathematics than SS and singleton females, nor did they perform worse either in Danish or English. Scores for OS and SS males were similar in all topics. In conclusion, this study did not provide evidence for a masculinization of female twins with male co-twins with regard to academic performance in adolescence.
睾酮是大脑性别分化中的一种重要激素，导致男性和女性在认知能力上存在差异。例如，对临床人群（如先天性肾上腺皮质增生症（CAH）女性，她们在子宫内接触到高水平雄激素）的研究支持了产前睾酮对诸如空间视觉认知和行为等特征有影响的观点。比较异性（OS）和同性（SS）双胞胎可用于帮助确定产前睾酮的作用。然而，尽管一些双胞胎研究证实了男性双胞胎对感知和认知等方面有男性化影响，但尚不清楚人类是否存在子宫内激素转移。我们的目的是测试睾酮对OS双胞胎学业成绩的潜在影响。我们比较了OS（n = 1812）和SS（n = 4054）双胞胎以及双胞胎和单胎（n = 13900）在数学、物理/化学、丹麦语和英语方面的九年级考试成绩和教师评分。我们发现，男性在数学方面的考试成绩显著高于女性（0.06 - 0.15标准差），而女性在丹麦语（0.33 - 0.49标准差）、英语（0.20标准差）和整洁度（0.45 - 0.64标准差）方面表现更好。然而，我们没有发现OS女性在数学方面的表现比SS和单胎女性更好，在丹麦语或英语方面也没有更差。OS和SS男性在所有科目上的成绩相似。总之，这项研究没有提供证据表明有男性双胞胎的女性双胞胎在青春期学业成绩方面存在男性化现象。
