期刊
PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
卷 41, 期 8, 页码 1481-1491出版社
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2006.06.009
关键词
digit ratio (2D : 4D); prenatal testosterone; empathising; systemising; autism phenotype; sex differences
The second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) is sexually differentiated and is a likely biomarker for the organisational (permanent) effects of prenatal testosterone on the human brain. Recent research has highlighted a possible role of prenatal testosterone levels in both the etiology of autism-spectrum disorders and in sex and individual differences in cognitive styles of the normal mind (Baron-Cohen's Extreme Male Brain Theory of Autism and Empathising/Systemising Theory). Importantly, autistic children present lower (hypermasculinised) 2D:4D than healthy controls. Based on these accounts, we investigated the relation of 2D:4D with Baron-Cohen's measures of empathising (Reading the Mind in the Eyes test, RMET; Empathy Quotient, EQ), systemising (Systemising Quotient, SQ), and autistic-like traits (Autism-Spectrum Quotient, AQ) in the general population (N = 423 Austrian adults). Whereas sex differences into the expected direction and of expected size were obtained for all variables and internal scale consistencies tallied to retrievable reference values, 213:413 was unrelated to RMET, EQ, SQ, and AQ scores. Candidate explanations for this lack of correlation might be possible developmental timing differences in the expression of 2D:4D and empathising/systemising, qualitative (as opposed to quantitative) functional differences between the normal and the autistic mind, or the suboptimal psychometric properties of the measures. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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