Cognitive abilities, androgen levels, and body mass index in 5-year-old children

Abstract

This study explores the potential relationship between a series of cognitive abilities and testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), androstenedione, and body mass index (BMI) measurements in 5-year-old children. 60 boys and 69 girls were administered a test (K-BIT) which provided measurements of fluid intelligence (Matrices subtest), crystallized intelligence (Vocabulary subtest), and IQ composite (the combination of the two subtests); a sub-sample of 48 boys and 61 girls was also subjected to diverse tests related to theory of mind (affective labeling, appearance -reality distinction, display rules, and false belief). Testosterone, DHEA, and androstenedione levels were measured using an enzyme immunoassay technique in saliva samples. An analysis of variance failed to reveal any significant differences between boys and girls in any of the cognitive abilities assessed. The correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between fluid intelligence and testosterone levels in boys, a negative relationship between crystallized intelligence and androstenedione levels in girls, and between affective labeling and androstenedione levels in boys. A multiple regression analysis indicated that androstenedione and BMI were the best predictors for some of the cognitive abilities assessed. D

Serum Free Testosterone and Estradiol Levels in Perceptual-Verbal and Spatial Abilities;Differences in Sex and Hand Preference

“…The sex hormones were thought to be responsible for the observed sex differences in cognitive abilities, but the available scientific literature does not provide any generally acceptable conclusion on this topic. For instance, testosterone has been reported to be beneficial for visuospatial ability in men (Hier & Crowly, 1982;Gordon & Lee, 1986;Christiansen & Knussmann, 1987;Tan, 1990a, b;Tan & Akgun, 1992;Christiansen, 1993;Janowsky et al, 1994;Van Goozen et al, 1994;Van Goozen et al, 1995;Tan & Tan, 1998;Barrett-Connor et al, 1999a;Silverman et al, 1999;Aleman et al, 2001;Kutlu et al, 2001;Kenny et al, 2002;Yaffe et al, 2002;Azurmendi et al, 2005), and women (Shute et al, 1983;Resnick et al, 1986;McKeever, 1987;Gouchie & Kimura, 1991;Van Goozen et al, 1995;Moffat & Hampson, 1996;Barrett-Connor et al, 1999b;Celec et al, 2002;Ostatnikova, et al, 2002). On the other hand, testosterone has also been reported as having no benefit for spatial ability in either men or women (Shute et al, 1983;Gouchie & Kimura, 1991;Moffat & Hampson, 1996;Van Goozen et al, 1995).…”

Body Mass Index and Cognitive Ability of Young Children

“…Although nowadays overweight is already highly prevalent at a young age [20,21], studies examining the association between overweight and cognitive ability among young children in primary school are limited [10,15,[22][23][24][25][26]. The majority of these studies reported lower levels of cognitive ability among overweight children.…”

“…The majority of these studies reported lower levels of cognitive ability among overweight children. However, in most cases the results are based on cross-sectional data [10,15,22,24,25]. More importantly, while almost all of these studies hypothesise on the importance of potential confounding fac-BMI and Cognitive Ability of Children 265 tors, such as maternal education or intelligence and the child's birth weight and physical fitness, only 1 cross-sectional [10] and 1 longitudinal study [26] actually adjusted their analyses for a considerable number of these factors.…”

Empathy, estradiol and androgen levels in 9-year-old children

“…Thus, Hermans, Putman, and van Honk (2006) found that in women aged between 19 and 31, the administration of a single dose of testosterone would attenuate empathic mimicry of emotional facial expressions. With regard to the relationship between androgen levels and the performance of diverse theory of mind tasks, Azurmendi et al (2005) found a negative association between high androgen levels and affective labeling (the task consists of labeling the emotions represented in a series of drawings, which depict expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, and fear). In specific terms, these authors observed a negative relationship in boys between affective labeling and androstenedione, with this hormone being a predictor for this cognitive ability.…”