COMMENTARY: Sex and an Eye Test

The paper by Strandqvist and colleagues on cognitive abilities in women with disorders of development ( DSD) reports a striking finding: sex chromosomes determine emotion recognition. How did they arrive at such a dramatic conclusion? They studied women with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome ( CAIS) who are XY and women with gonadal dysgenesis ( GD) with either XX or XY chromosomes. None were exposed in utero to androgens, either because of resistance to their action (CAIS) or from lack of androgen production (GD).Thus the effect of androgens on, for example, spatial ability well recognised to be sex dimorphic is removed thereby highlighting any sex chromosome effects exemplified by the XX GD group.
Source: Psychoneuroendocrinology - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Letter to the Editor Source Type: research
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