Salivary testosterone and creative musical behavior in adolescent males and females

Are hormone levels and cognitive ability related during early adolescence?

“…However, this review focuses on the negative effects predicted by the model, such as learning disorders and immunological diseases, with little mention given to functions of the right hemisphere, which are potentially strengthened. In support of the strengthened abilities of the right hemisphere, Hassler and Nieschlag (1991) found that left-handedness (used as a proxy for greater development of the right hemisphere) among adolescents was associated with greater musical ability (a talent thought to be centred in the right hemisphere), particularly for boys. One particular criticism of the GBG model is that the impact of testosterone on the lateralisation of the brain may extend beyond prenatal development (Forget & Cohen, 1994).…”

Mapping Music Education Research in Germany

“…Brain imaging techniques (EEG, MEG, fMRI, PET) have opened a window onto the actively working brain to investigate the impact of musical learning on brain activation patterns (Gruhn and Altenmüller, 1997) and the development of mental representations (Gruhn, 1998b;Bangert and Altenmüller, 2003). Other EEG studies have focused on music perception in young children (Mühlhauser, 2000), on time and rhythm processing (Altenmüller et al, 2000;Grossbach et al, 2001), on similarities of syntactic processing in language and music (Kölsch et al, 2001), on the lateralization asymmetry (Altenmüller, 1989;Hassler, 1990) or on hormonal impact on creative musical behaviour (Hassler and Nieschlag, 1991). Other approaches have examined the cardiovascular effect of music listening (Kreutz et al, 2002) or have taken saccadic eye movement as a measure of mental speed (Gruhn et al, 2003).…”