Welche Themen interessieren euch, welche Studien fandet ihr besonders interessant in der Woche, welche Neuigkeiten gibt es, die interessant für eine Diskussion wären und was beschäftigt euch gerade?
Welche interessanten Artikel gibt es auf euren Blogs oder auf den Blogs anderer? Welches Thema sollte noch im Blog diskutiert werden?
Leser Dummerjan hatte auf eine interessante Studie hingewiesen, nach der Testosteron den Spracherwerb verzögern kann. Leider habe ich den Volltext der Studie nicht gefunden, hier ist der Abstract:
Background: Preliminary evidence suggests that prenatal testosterone exposure may be associated with language delay. However, no study has examined a large sample of children at multiple time-points.
Methods: Umbilical cord blood samples were obtained at 861 births and analysed for bioavailable testosterone (BioT) concentrations. When participating offspring were 1, 2 and 3 years of age, parents of 767 children (males = 395; females = 372) completed the Infant Monitoring Questionnaire (IMQ), which measures Communication, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Adaptive and Personal–Social development. Cut-off scores are available for each scale at each age to identify children with ‘clinically significant’ developmental delays. Chi-square analyses and generalized estimating equations examined longitudinal associations between sex-specific quartiles of BioT concentrations and the rate of developmental delay.
Results: Significantly more males than females had language delay (Communication scale) at age 1, 2 and 3 years (p-values ≤. 01). Males were also more likely to be classified as delayed on the Fine-Motor (p = .04) and Personal–Social (p < .01) scales at age 3 years. Chi-square analyses found a significant difference between BioT quartiles in the rate of language delay (but not Fine-Motor and Personal–Social delay) for males (age 3) and females (age 1 and 3). Generalized estimating equations, incorporating a range of sociodemographic and obstetric variables, found that males in the highest BioT quartile were at increased risk for a clinically significant language delay during the first 3 years of life, with an odds ratio (OR) of 2.47 (95% CI: 1.12, 5.47). By contrast, increasing levels of BioT reduced the risk of language delay among females (Quartile 2: OR = 0.23, 95% CI: 0.09, 0.59; Quartile 4: 0.46, 95% CI: 0.21, 0.99).
Conclusion: These data suggest that high prenatal testosterone levels are a risk factor for language delay in males, but may be a protective factor for females.
Zu den Unterschieden bei der Sprache von Mann und Frau hatte ich schon ein paar Artikel:
Diese Studie macht noch einmal deutlich, dass auch hier die Hormone eine Rolle spielen.
Aus einem Artikel zu der Studie:
The research team wanted to test whether this developmental delay could be due to prenatal exposure to sex steroids such as testosterone, as male fetuses are known to have ten times the circulating levels of testosterone compared to females. The team proposed that higher levels of exposure to prenatal testosterone might increase the likelihood of language development delays. Dr. Whitehouse’s team measured levels of testosterone in the umbilical cord blood of 767 newborns before examining their language ability at one, two, and three years of age. The results showed that boys with high levels of testosterone in cord blood were between two and three times more likely to experience language delay. However, the opposite effect was found in girls, where high levels of testosterone in cord blood were associated with a decreased risk of language delay. Dr. Whitehouse said the finding is significant in that it gives a biological explanation for why boys’ language development differs to that of girls.
Alles Evolution 