Essay Example on Testosterone Cognition and Gender

Testosterone Cognition and Gender Testosterone is responsible for the expression of characteristically male phenotypes such as smaller digit ratios Manning Scutt Wilson Lewis Jones 1998 but does it have influence upon cognition Baron Cohen 2002 proposed that autistic people have an EMB or extreme male brain meaning they are exposed to greater amounts of prenatal steroidogenic activity Testosterone than those without an ASD or autistic spectrum disorder Baron Cohen et al 2015 Baron Cohen et al 2010 suggested that on average females are more likely to empathise than males and males more likely to be systematized Those with autism score below average on the EQ or Empathy Quotient and above average on MR tasks such as the Intuitive Physics Test IPT Testosterone is thought to be the root cause of this as it inhibits left hemispheric growth therefore lateralizing male brains to the right the latter responsible for spatial and mental rotation or MR tasks and former for communication or empathy Beking et al 2018 On MR tasks males score significantly higher than females Zapf Glindemann Vogeley Falter 2015 suggesting that this lateralisation exists in those exposed to greater amounts of prenatal testosterone 

The null hypotheses were rejected and both experimental hypotheses were accepted Discussion The results show that testosterone has a significant effect on cognitive ability the more testosterone an individual is exposed to prenatal affected empathising negatively and increased efficiency in MR tasks therefore suggesting testosterone did have a significant effect on cognitive functions bi directionality across genders was observed as effects of testosterone stayed the same across genders The only gender difference observed was overall average levels of testosterone Overall these results suggest the EMB theory Baron Cohen 2002 has validity Testosterone must affect brain lateralisation resulting in differences in cognition exemplified by the phenomenon observed in this study However some consideration should be placed on environmental factors as this was only a correlation other factors could confound the results Practicing mental rotation or empathy related activities may Increase efficiency and therefore testosterone may only be a partial factor in the efficacy of these cognitive functions In future research should aim to find new and more biologically specific ways of studying testosterone's effects on brain hardwiring and its relation to neural plasticity to fully observe it s influence upon cognition