Note that Sheri Berenbaum was one of the psychologists seen in the video clip.

 

Some CAH related research :

 

Early androgens are related to childhood sex-typed toy preferences.
 Berenbaum,-Sheri-A; Hines,-Melissa
 Psychological-Science. 1992 May; Vol 3(3): 203-206.
 28 girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) who were exposed to high levels of androgen in the prenatal and early postnatal periods showed increased play with boys' toys and reduced play with girls' toys compared with 15 of their unexposed female relatives at ages 3 to 8 yrs. 11 boys (aged 3-8 yrs) with CAH did not differ from 18 of their age-matched male relatives in play with boys' or girls' toys. Results suggest that early hormone exposure in females has a masculinizing effect on sex-typed toy preferences.

 

Effects of early androgens on sex-typed activities and interests in adolescents with congenital adrenal hyperplasia.
 Berenbaum,-Sheri-A
Hormones-and-Behavior. 1999 Feb; Vol 35(1): 102-110.
 
Examined the relation of early androgen experience to sex-typed activities and interests in adolescence. Ss aged 9-19 yrs included 24 girls and 18 boys with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and 16 unaffected sisters and 24 unaffected brothers who served as controls. Using standardized questionnaires, Ss reported on their participation in sex-typed activities and interest in sex-typed occupations, and parents reported on the Ss' activities. As hypothesized, girls with CAH showed sex-atypical preferences. These results extend findings of sex-atypical play in young girls with CAH and suggest that the sex-atypical activities and interests of females with CAH reflect direct effects of androgens on the developing brain rather than social responses to virilized genitalia.

 

Early hormonal influences on cognitive functioning in congenital adrenal hyperplasia.
Resnick,-Susan-M; Berenbaum,-Sheri-A; Gottesman,-Irving-I; Bouchard,-Thomas-J
Developmental-Psychology. 1986 Mar; Vol 22(2): 191-198.
Administered a cognitive test battery that emphasized spatial ability, verbal fluency, and perceptual speed and accuracy to 17 females (aged 12.7-23.2 yrs) and 8 males (aged 13-29.9 yrs) with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and 13 normal female relatives (aged 11.4-31.1 yrs) and 14 unaffected male relatives (aged 12.5-28.8 yrs). In addition, 13 fathers and 15 mothers of CAH patients participated. Ss also completed the Progressive Matrices, a vocabulary test, and an early life activities questionnaire (ELAQ). Findings indicate that CAH females, as compared with normal females, showed significantly enhanced performance on hidden pattern, card rotation, and mental rotation tests of spatial ability. On the ELAQ, CAH females, relative to normal females, showed significantly lower frequencies of participation in activities involving verbal expression and a trend toward greater participation in spatial manipulation activities. However, differences between CAH females and normal females in early childhood activities did not account for observed differences in spatial ability, given the absence of a significant correlation between the spatial manipulation activity scale and spatial ability. There was an absence of reliable differences between male CAH patients and controls across spatial tasks. Results are consistent with an effect of pre- and perinatal androgenizing hormones on the development of spatial ability.

 

 

Early onset  of sex dif research:

 

Sex differences in neonatal eye contact time.
 Hittelman,-Joan-H; Dickes,-Robert
 Merrill-Palmer-Quarterly. 1979 Jul; Vol 25(3): 171-184.

Eye contact behavior was studied in 15 male and 15 female healthy, normal, Caucasian, newborn infants . Four postural conditions (from supine to upright) and silence vs speaking by the investigator were compared; each posture lasted 66 sec, equally divided between silence and speaking. Females spent more time in eye-to-eye contact than males, especially in the upright posture. Frequency and latency of contact was the same for males and females, the differentiating factor being duration. The differences may be due to females' generally greater development than males at birth. Results indicate that infants relate interpersonally and that males and females behave differently. This behavior can be more or less rewarding to the mother and contribute to different quality relationships, perhaps with long-range consequences, as adult females make more eye contacts than males

 

Sex differences in human neonatal social perception.

 Connellan,-Jennifer; Baron-Cohen,-Simon; Wheelwright,-Sally; Batki,-Anna; Ahluwalia,-Jag
 Infant-Behavior-and-Development. 2000 Jan; Vol 23(1): 113-118.

 Notes that sexual dimorphism in sociability has been documented in humans. The present study aimed to ascertain whether the sexual dimorphism is a result of biological or socio-cultural differences between the 2 sexes. 102 human neonates, who by definition have not yet been influenced by social and cultural factors, were tested to see if there was a difference in looking time at a face (social object) and a mobile (physical-mechanical object). Results showed that the male infants showed a stronger interest in the physical-mechanical mobile while the female infants showed a stronger interest in the face. The results of this research demonstrate that sex differences are in part biological in origin.

 

 

 

 

 

Brain Imaging Research example:

 

Women and men exhibit different cortical activation patterns during mental rotation tasks

: Jordan,-Kirsten; Wuestenberg,-Torsten; Heinze,-Hans-Jochen; Peters,-Michael; Jaencke,-Lutz
 Neuropsychologia. 2002; Vol 40(13): 2397-2408

 The strongest sex differences on any cognitive task, favoring men, are found for tasks that require the mental rotation of three-dimensional objects. A number of studies have explored functional brain activation during mental rotation tasks, and sex differences have been noted in some. In contrast to other studies, the authors' functional brain activation study examined cortical activation patterns for males and females who did not differ in overall level of performance on 3 mental rotation tasks. This allowed them to eliminate any confounding influences of overall performance levels. Women exhibited significant bilateral activations in the intraparietal sulcus and the superior and inferior parietal lobule, as well as in the inferior temporal gyrus and the premotor areas. Men showed significant activation in the right parieto-occipital sulcus, the left intraparietal sulcus and the left superior parietal lobule. Both sexes showed activation of the premotor areas but men also showed an additional significant activation of the left motor cortex. The results suggest that there are genuine between-sex differences in cerebral activation patterns during mental rotation activities even when performances are similar.

 

 

Circulating Levels:

 

Janowsky, J. S; Oviatt,S. K; Orwoll, E.S. (1994) Testosterone influences spatial cognition in older men.Behavioral-Neuroscience. 108 (2): 325-332
Testosterone (TST) plays a role in the organization of behavior during development. The authors examined whether TST could play a maintenance role in behavior as well. In a double-blind manner, verbal and visual memory, spatial cognition, motor speed, cognitive flexibility, and mood in a group of 56 healthy older men (aged 60-75 yrs) who were supplemented for 3 mo with TST were assessed. The increase in TST levels to 150% of baseline levels resulted in a significant enhancement of spatial cognition, but no change in any other cognitive domain was found.

 

Strong Animal Research Example (*remember rats have second surge right AFTER birth and not prenatally):

 

Organizational effects of early gonadal secretions on sexual differentiation in spatial memory.
by Williams, Christina L.; Barnett, Allison M.; Meck, Warren H.
from Behavioral Neuroscience. 1990 Feb Vol 104(1) 84-97
•In Exp 1 spatial memory was assessed using a 12-arm radial maze. During acquisition, MC and F-”hormone treated” groups were more accurate in choice behavior than FC and M-“castrated” groups.
•In Exp 2 the discriminative control exerted by different types of cues was evaluated. Alteration of the geometry of the room --but not movable landmarks -- disrupted performance of MC and F-hormone groups.  

Human Navigation Strategies:

Liu, I, Revy RM Barton JJ, Ilaria G. (2011) Age and Gender differences in various topographic orientation strategies.  Brain Res.

 Orientation in the environment can draw on a variety of cognitive strategies. We asked 634 healthy volunteers to perform a comprehensive battery administered through an internet website (www.gettinglost.ca), testing different orientation strategies in virtual environments to determine the effect of age and gender upon these skills. Older participants (46-67years of age) performed worse than younger participants (18-30 or 31-45years of age) in all orientation skills assessed, including landmark recognition, integration of body-centered information, forming association between landmarks and body turns, and the formation and use of a cognitive map. Among all tests, however, the ability to form cognitive maps resulted to be the significant factor best at predicting the individuals' age group. Gender effects were stable across age and dissociated for task, with males better than females for cognitive map formation and use as well as for path reversal, an orientation task that does not require the processing of visual landmarks during navigation. We conclude that age-related declines in navigation are common across all orientation strategies and confirm gender-specific effects in different spatial domains.

 

Cherney, ID at al (2008). Mapping out spatial ability in way finding naviagation. Pe 2008 Dec;107(3):747-60. 

Examined how navigational strategies, map drawing, and map reading skills may be related in spatial perception performance of 124 U.S. undergraduate men and women who completed one of two versions of Collaer and Nelson's Judgment of Line Angle and Position-15 test and Piaget's Water Level Test. Analysis indicated sex differences in performance were eliminated when self-perceptions of map reading, map drawing, and navigational skills were used as covariates. The men used an orientation (cardinal), whereas the women used a landmark way-finding strategy. Introducing a fine motor skill to solve the Judgment of Line Angle and Position-15 eliminated the sex difference. The data suggest spatial perception is in part influenced by map reading and way-finding strategies

 

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