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Prenatal testosterone does not explain sex differences in spatial ability.


ABSTRACT: The most consistent sex differences in cognition are found for spatial ability, in which males, on average, outperform females. Utilizing a twin design, two studies have shown that females with male co-twins perform better than females with female co-twins on a mental rotation task. According to the Twin Testosterone Transfer hypothesis (TTT) this advantage is due to in-uterine transmission of testosterone from males to females. The present study tested the TTT across 14 different spatial ability measures, including mental rotation tasks, in a large sample of 19-21-year-old twins. Males performed significantly better than females on all spatial tasks, with effect sizes ranging from ?2?=?0.02 to ?2?=?0.16. Females with a male co-twin outperformed females with a female co-twin in two of the tasks. The effect sizes for both differences were negligible (?2?

SUBMITTER: Toivainen T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6135826 | biostudies-other | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Prenatal testosterone does not explain sex differences in spatial ability.

Toivainen Teemu T   Pannini Giulia G   Papageorgiou Kostas A KA   Malanchini Margherita M   Rimfeld Kaili K   Shakeshaft Nicholas N   Kovas Yulia Y  

Scientific reports 20180912 1


The most consistent sex differences in cognition are found for spatial ability, in which males, on average, outperform females. Utilizing a twin design, two studies have shown that females with male co-twins perform better than females with female co-twins on a mental rotation task. According to the Twin Testosterone Transfer hypothesis (TTT) this advantage is due to in-uterine transmission of testosterone from males to females. The present study tested the TTT across 14 different spatial abilit  ...[more]

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