Prenatal testosterone does not explain sex differences in spatial ability

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Toivainen, Teemu; Pannini, Giulia; Papageorgiou, Kostas A.; Malanchini, Margherita; Rimfeld, Kaili; Shakeshaft, Nicholas and Kovas, Yulia. 2018. Prenatal testosterone does not explain sex differences in spatial ability. Scientific Reports, 8(13653), ISSN 2045-2322 [Article]

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-31704-y

Abstract or Description

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 η2 = 0.02 to η2 = 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 (η2 < 0.02). Contrary to the previous studies, our results gave no indication that prenatally transferred testosterone, from a male to a female twin, influences sex differences in spatial ability.

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Article

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-31704-y