Fetal testosterone exposure and its relationship to the development of language and cerebral laterality

Lauren Hollier

Research output: ThesisDoctoral Thesis

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Abstract

[Truncated abstract] Fetal testosterone exposure has been suggested to underlie aspects of postnatal development. However, due to the inherent difficulty in obtaining biological samples of prenatal sex steroid concentrations, most research to date has been conducted using approximate measures (e.g. second-to-fourth digit ratio: 2D:4D) or measures that result in small, selected samples (e.g. amniotic fluid). The initial aim of this thesis was to examine whether umbilical cord blood collected at birth provides a suitable method to examine the effects of early hormone exposure on postnatal human development. Review of the existing literature suggested that cord blood is a useful and meaningful measure of late gestation sex steroid concentrations, given appropriate analytical techniques are employed. Therefore, we utilised testosterone concentrations in cord blood to examine aspects of postnatal development that are thought to be influenced by prenatal testosterone exposure.
The second aim of this thesis was to examine whether cord testosterone levels are related to early language development. It has been suggested that high prenatal testosterone exposure is related to delayed language development in early childhood. We investigated this in large samples of males (n = 197) and females (n = 176). Consistent with previous literature, at 2 years, females had significantly greater expressive vocabulary than males, as reported by parents. Importantly, cord testosterone concentrations significantly negatively predicted vocabulary size in males, but not females. These findings indicate that higher circulating fetal testosterone concentrations at birth may contribute to slower early development of language in males.
Original languageEnglish
QualificationDoctor of Philosophy
Publication statusUnpublished - 2014

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