Extreme Male Brain - Autism linked to high foetal testosterone levels
By Antonio Marques • Sep 11th, 2007 • Category: Features, Medicine, News
Today, during the BA Festival of Science 2007, researchers from the University of Cambridge (UK) presented what can be the first correlation between foetal testosterone and autistic traits.
Autism is considered a disorder in brain development and it is characterized by restricted and repetitive behaviors together with immense social interaction and communication problems.
There are many factors to be considered as contributing to autism but genetics can explain over 90% of the cases, with mutations in one or more genes as the cause. The wide symptomatic differences between autistic individuals can also have a genetic explanation, with mutations occurring in different sets of genes.
The mechanisms of the effect of the male hormone testosterone (see figure above) are not yet known and this study only shows a correlation between testosterone and autism but, although some have suggested a link between both, it’s the first time such a correlation is proven.
The study compared foetal testosterone levels in the womb (via amniocentesis) with characteristic autistic traits tested at 12, 18 and 46 months and then again at 96 months after birth.
Although the correlation is not perfect, it accounts for 20% in the variability in the test scores. Not high, but according to the authors, statistically significant.
The study, however, still lacks explanation for whether the high foetal testosterone is the cause for the autistic traits or if it’s a by-product of them.
Further insights will probably be gathered by the researchers in the end of their studies using Denmark’s archive of 90 thousand amniocentesis samples and register of psychiatric diagnosis.
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Thank you for posting this information. Hopefully the studies on autism will make progress in understanding it and possibly preventing it.
That is great news, hope this research will be a great help to prevent autism.
Hi Brian,
Thanks for your comment.
I think the research is still very far from being applied in any way, but everything is done through little steps.