How early hormones shape gender development

Abstract

Many important psychological characteristics show sex differences, and are influenced by sex hormones at different developmental periods. We focus on the role of sex hormones in early development, particularly the differential effects of prenatal androgens on aspects of gender development. Increasing evidence confirms that prenatal androgens have facilitative effects on male-typed activity interests and engagement (including child toy preferences and adult careers), and spatial abilities, but relatively minimal effects on gender identity. Recent emphasis has been directed to the psychological mechanisms underlying these effects (including sex differences in propulsive movement, and androgen effects on interest in people versus things), and neural substrates of androgen effects (including regional brain volumes, and neural responses to mental rotation, sexually arousing stimuli, emotion, and reward). Ongoing and planned work is focused on understanding the ways in which hormones act jointly with the social environment across time to produce varying trajectories of gender development, and clarifying mechanisms by which androgens affect behaviors. Such work will be facilitated by applying lessons from other species, and by expanding methodology. Understanding hormonal influences on gender development enhances knowledge of psychological development generally, and has important implications for basic and applied questions, including sex differences in psychopathology, women’s underrepresentation in science and math, and clinical care of individuals with variations in gender expression.

Ovarian hormones: a long overlooked but critical contributor to cognitive brain structures and function

“…Despite animal research demonstrating the presence of progesterone receptors (PRA and PRB) in brain regions involved in cognition, little is known about their location in the human brain . Natural experiments, or circumstances that lead to natural variations in hormones, and relatively recent methodological developments in neuroimaging (e.g., accessibility to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)), endocrinology (e.g., availability of estradiol salivary assays), and computation (e.g., power to analyze multimodal data sets) combine to facilitate investigations into the role of ovarian hormones in cognitive neuroscience.…”

“…Several experiments may also have organizational effects (indicated by stars). Although the greatest evidence for organizational effects of sex hormones on the human brain comes from androgen exposure during prenatal development, it is increasingly clear that pubertal estrogens are organizational, and emerging longitudinal data from other natural experiments provocatively suggest that ovarian hormones may have organizational effects at other points in women's lives.…”

Beyond Pink and Blue: The Complexity of Early Androgen Effects on Gender Development

“…Girls and women with C‐CAH provide researchers an opportunity to examine the relative influences on gender development of exposure to sex hormones (masculinized) and childrearing (as a girl). Studies (discussed later and reviewed in ) show that behavior in females with C‐CAH is masculinized in some but not all ways, and the extent of masculinization varies across behaviors (consistent with the multidimensionality of gender; ). These studies also show that as a group, females with C‐CAH are not as masculinized as typical males, and the degree of behavioral masculinization in females with C‐CAH correlates modestly with the degree of prenatal exposure to androgens inferred from genotype or severity of the disease.…”

“…An additional concern is that behavioral changes result from other hormones atypical in CAH (e.g., cortisol) or from having a serious chronic illness requiring lifelong medication. Other hormones and factors related to illness are unlikely to have selective effects on gendered characteristics; they would also affect males with C‐CAH and some would also affect females with NC‐CAH, which is not the case (see Figure A, and ).…”

Biological and social aspects of human sexual orientation: chemocommunicative hypothesis

“…На них накла-дываются особенности внутриутробной стадии развития, действие фармакологических препаратов, воспитание в детский период, возникающие условно-рефлекторные связи и импринтинг, та или иная гендерная информация, социальные факторы, действующие в критические перио-ды развития, культурные и другие особенности [4,41]. Это неизбежно приводит к многообразию состава ком-понентов, которые формируют СОю, проявляющуюся в виде различных форм полового и неполового поведения.…”