Sex differences in interest in infants in juvenile rhesus monkeys: relationship to prenatal androgen

Herman, Rebecca A.; Measday, Megan A; Wallen, Kim

doi:10.1016/s0018-506x(03)00067-9

Cited by 46 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The screams of both early and late flutamide treated females were significantly less like the adult female prototypes than were the screams control females. This masculinizing effect of flutamide on females was also seen in the separation vocalizations of these same animals as infants (Tomaszycki et al, 2001), and has also been described in behavioral research on these same subjects (Herman et al, 2003). One possibility is that flutamide indirectly resulted in a heightened exposure to androgens, due to the suppression of negative feedback on the HPG axis (Giusti et al, 1995;Viguier-Martinez, Hochereau de Reviers, Barenton, & Perreau, 1983).…”

Section: Effects Of Prenatal Androgens On Sex Differences In Agonistisupporting

confidence: 61%

Sex differences in juvenile rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) agonistic screams: Life history differences and effects of prenatal androgens

Tomaszycki

Gouzoules

Wallen

2005

Developmental Psychobiology

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This study investigated sex differences in juvenile rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) vocal behavior during agonistic contexts, and the effects of prenatal androgens on these differences. A total of 59 subjects (5-8 per treatment group) received exogenous androgen (testosterone enanthate), an anti-androgen (flutamide) or vehicle injections (DMSO) for 30 or 35 days during the second (early) or third (late) trimester of pregnancy. An additional 19 unmanipulated controls were included in the analysis. Screams by juvenile males and females between the ages of 1 and 3 years were compared to the screams of adult female exemplars using a discriminant function analysis. Juvenile females produced more adult-female like screams than did juvenile males. Females exposed to androgen treatment late in gestation produced a more masculine pattern of screams. Flutamide treatment in males either early or late in gestation did not significantly affect scream production. Flutamide treatments in females late in gestation, however, masculinized scream production. Androgen treatments administered late in gestation hyper-masculinized male scream production. No sex differences in the contextual usage of screams emerged. These findings suggest that both life history differences and the early hormone environment contribute to sex differences in juvenile rhesus macaque vocal production. ß 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 47: 318-327, 2005.

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Section: Effects Of Prenatal Androgens On Sex Differences In Agonistisupporting

confidence: 61%

Sex differences in juvenile rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) agonistic screams: Life history differences and effects of prenatal androgens

Tomaszycki

Gouzoules

Wallen

2005

Developmental Psychobiology

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“…The body of findings does not present a strong case for the effect of infant sex or gender label per se on parental treatment, particularly in younger infants (Biringen et al 1999, Lytton & Romney 1991, Robinson et al 1993, Stern & Karraker 1989. In American infants, individual variations in infant temperament are also almost entirely explicable by genetic variation (Goldsmith et al 1999), and the presence of analogous sex differences in nonhuman primates (Alexander & Hines 2002, Hassett et al 2008, Herman et al 2003) probably argues against a major role of socialization. Many findings of caregiving variations in treatment of girl and boy infants do not remove variance contributed by what the infants themselves elicit on the basis of their activity levels, capacity for mutual gaze, emotional expressiveness, or other temperamental differences.…”

Section: The Role Of Biological Sex Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Early Development of Gender Differences

McIntyre

Edwards

2009

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

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This article reviews findings from anthropology, psychology, and other disciplines about the role of biological factors in the development of sex differences in human behavior, including biological theories, the developmental course of sex differences, and the interaction of biological and cultural gendering processes at different ages. Current evidence suggests that major biological influences on individual differences in human gender, to the extent that they exist, operate primarily in early development, during and especially prior to puberty. Biological effects are likely to be mediated by relatively simple processes, like temperament, which are then elaborated through social interactions (as with mother and peers) into more complex gendered features of adult personality. Biological anthropologists and psychologists interested in gender should direct more attention to understanding how social processes influence the development and function of the reproductive endocrine system.

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“…All subjects have been studied throughout infancy, the juvenile period, and puberty, and subtle but significant effects of the treatments have been seen in their morphology and endocrinology (Herman et al, 2000), developmental timing (Herman et al, 2006), vocal communication (Tomaszycki et al, 2001, and social behavior (Herman et al, 2003;Wallen, 2005).…”

Section: Subjectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Treatments produced six experimental and two control groups of subjects as shown in Table 1. Androgen-treated male offspring were not included in this study as a result of subject loss over the 8 years of this extended study.All subjects have been studied throughout infancy, the juvenile period, and puberty, and subtle but significant effects of the treatments have been seen in their morphology and endocrinology (Herman et al, 2000), developmental timing (Herman et al, 2006), vocal communication (Tomaszycki et al, 2001, and social behavior (Herman et al, 2003;Wallen, 2005).For all habituation, training, and testing, subjects were temporarily removed from their social groups using procedures to which all subjects were already fully accustomed. All females tested in the first three months of testing performed trials with their infant offspring present on their ventrum.…”

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confidence: 99%

Cognitive performance in rhesus monkeys varies by sex and prenatal androgen exposure

Herman

Wallen

2007

Hormones and Behavior

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Men and women differ on performance and strategy on several spatial tasks. Rodents display similar sex differences, and manipulations of early hormone exposure alter the direction of these differences. However, most cognitive testing of nonhuman primates has utilized sample sizes too small to investigate sexually-differentiated behaviors. This study presents an investigation of sex differences and the effects of prenatal androgen on spatial memory and strategy use in rhesus monkeys. Monkeys prenatally exposed to vehicle, testosterone, or the androgen receptor blocker flutamide performed a search task in which 5 of 12 goal boxes contained food rewards. Spatial consistency and the presence of local landmarks were varied. Performance when both spatial and marker cues were available did not differ by sex or prenatal treatment. Contrary to predictions, females easily solved the task when local markers were removed, and their performance outscored males. Although eliminating spatial consistency and requiring subjects to use local markers impaired performance by all monkeys, females continued to locate correct goal boxes at higher than chance levels and scored better than males. Blocking prenatal androgen exposure in males improved use of local markers. These findings suggest that the tendency to attend to landmarks and to use them in solving spatial problems is typical of females across many species, including rodents, humans, and rhesus monkeys. In rhesus monkeys and rodents, developmental androgen eliminates this specialization. However, these results are the only known example of better performance of females than males when salient markers are removed.Keywords rhesus monkey; spatial cognition; sex differences; testosterone; flutamide; prenatal; landmarks On a variety of spatially-demanding tasks, men outperform women. Tests of mental rotation, the ability to imagine the rotation of a two-or three-dimensional object rapidly, provide the largest and most reliable sex differences (Linn and Petersen, 1985), but performance differences exist in other spatial abilities also, including the ability to quickly and accurately learn a described route (Galea and Kimura, 1993;Ward et al., 1986). Not only do differences exist in overall performance, but men and women tend to use different strategies in maplearning and navigation. Men use cardinal directions and mileage estimates more, whereas women rely upon landmarks more (Galea and Kimura, 1993;Lawton, 1994Lawton, , 1996Saucier et al., 2002;Ward et al., 1986). Choice of strategy may be the important difference as route 1 To whom correspondence should be addressed: Department of Psychology Emory University 532 N. Kilgo Circle Atlanta, Georgia 30322 E-mail: rebecca.herman@gmail.com Phone: 678-637-1357 Fax: 404-727-0372 Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and ...

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Sex differences in interest in infants in juvenile rhesus monkeys: relationship to prenatal androgen

Cited by 46 publications

References 41 publications

Sex differences in juvenile rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) agonistic screams: Life history differences and effects of prenatal androgens

Sex differences in juvenile rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) agonistic screams: Life history differences and effects of prenatal androgens

The Early Development of Gender Differences

Cognitive performance in rhesus monkeys varies by sex and prenatal androgen exposure

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