You are on page 1of 5

This article was downloaded by: [TÜBTAK EKUAL]

On: 7 August 2009


Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 772814176]
Publisher Informa Healthcare
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,
37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

International Journal of Neuroscience


Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713644851

There is a Direct Relationship Between Nonverbal Intelligence and Serum


Testosterone Level in Young Men
Üner Tan a; Ahmet Akgün b
a
Ataturk University, Medical Faculty, Institute of Physiology, Erzurum, Turkey b Black-Sea Technical
University, Medical Faculty, Institute of Physiology, Trabzon, Turkey

Online Publication Date: 01 May 1992

To cite this Article Tan, Üner and Akgün, Ahmet(1992)'There is a Direct Relationship Between Nonverbal Intelligence and Serum
Testosterone Level in Young Men',International Journal of Neuroscience,64:1,213 — 216
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.3109/00207459209000548
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/00207459209000548

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or
systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or
distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.

The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents
will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses
should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss,
actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly
or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
Intern. J. Neuroscience, 1992, Vol. 64,p. 213-216 0 1992 Gordon and Breach Science Publishers S.A.
Reprints available directly from the publisher Printed in the United States of America
Photocopying permitted by license only

Brief Communication
THERE IS A DIRECT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NONVERBAL
INTELLIGENCE AND SERUM TESTOSTERONE LEVEL
IN YOUNG MEN

UNER TAN
Atatiirk University, Medical Faculty, Institute of Physiology, Erzurum, Turkey

AHMET AKGUN
Black-Sea Technical University, Medical Faculty, Institute of Physiology,
Trabzon, Turkey
Downloaded By: [TÜBTAK EKUAL] At: 13:35 7 August 2009

(Received July 29, I 9 9 I )

It was confirmed that there is a direct relationship between serum testosterone level and nonverbal in-
telligence (Cattel’s Culture Fair Intelligence Test) only in right-handed male subjects without familial
sinistrality (FS-), with right eye preference. There was no significant correlation between these variables
in young women and young men with mixed eye preference. It was concluded that testosterone would
be an important factor which affects cognitive development in men.

Keywords: Intelligence, testosterone, man, woman

Tan (1990 a, b) has previously shown that there is a direct correlation between serum
testosterone level and nonverbal intelligence (Cattel’s Culture Fair Intelligence Test)
only in right-handed FS- young men and strongly right-handed FS- women. In the
present work, we restudied the association between serum testosterone level and
nonverbal intelligence in right-handed young men and women in another place in
Turkey, et the Black-Sea Technical University in Trabzon instead of Erzurum in
Eastern Turkey. We confirmed the main result that there is a direct relationship
between serum testosterone level and nonverbal intelligence only in FS- young men.

METHODS

Subjects were right-handed young male and female students from the Black-Sea
Technical University in Trabzon. They ranged in age from 17 to 19 years, and par-
ticipated in this study voluntarily. They were healthy, and devoid of neurological
and psychiatric signs and symptoms.
Hand preference was assessed by the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield,
1971). Eye preference was tested by sighting through a hollow tube. The subjects
were first asked which eye they would prefer in using a microscope.
~

Address for correspondence: Prof. Dr. Uner Tan, Director, Department of Physiology, Medical Fac-
ulty, Atatiirk University, Erzurum, Turkey.

213
214 U. TAN AND A. AKGUN

IQ US. TESTOSTERONE I N FS- MALES

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . ... . ...., .
-____.--I -I_--

150 ,<"
,/
: ./'
'

.,.' : ,.p- ...


125

U
w 100 1

50 L;.:,: ; ......... . . . . . . . .j . . . . . . . . . . . . . j.. . . . . . . . . . . . .i.].

0 4.5 9 13.5 18
Downloaded By: [TÜBTAK EKUAL] At: 13:35 7 August 2009

TESTOSTERONE h y / m 1 1
FIGURE 1 The relation of testosterone to nonverbal intelligence in right-handed FS- male subjects
with right-eye preference Abscissa: serum testosterone level (ng/ml) Ordinate: IQ (Cattell's Culture Fair
Intelligence Test) Y = 65.4 + 3.7 X. Straight line is the regression line. Pair of dashed lines closest
to the regression line refer to 95% confidence limits. Pair of dashed lines farthest from the regression
line refer to the 95% prediction limits.

Venous blood was taken into a lithium test tube to determine the blood testosterone
level. The plasma was separated and serum testosterone level was determined by
using tritium-marked radio-immunoassays (Nieschlag and Loriaux, 1972).
Individual differences in mental ability for spatial reasoning (nonverbal intelli-
gence) were established by Cattel's Culture Fair Intelligence Test. Scale 2 was used
as a group test. The raw scores were converted into IQs using the table for converting
raw scores directly into intelligence quotients (IQ).

RESULTS
Right-handed FS- male subjects with right eye preference There was a significant
positive linear correlation between serum testosterone level and nonverbal intelli-
gence in these subjects ( r = .51, df = 34, p = .002). Figure 1 illustrates this re-
lationship.

Right-handed FS- male subjects with mixed eye preference There was no signif-
icant correlation between serum testosterone level and nonverbal intelligence in these
subjects ( r = -.25, df = 15, p = .343).

Right-handed female subjects There was no significant correlation between serum


testosterone level and nonverbal intelligence in right-handed FS - female subjects
with right eye preference ( r = -.08, df = 25, p = .688). In right-handed FS-
female subjects with mixed eye preference, the serum testosterone did not show a
significant relation to nonverbal intelligence ( r = -.47, df = 11, p = .127).
TESTOSTERONE AND INTELLIGENCE 215

In right-handed FS+ female subjects, the serum testosterone level also did not
show any significant correlation with nonverbal intelligence (r = - .07, df = 12, p
= .813).

DISCUSSION

The main result of this work was that there was a significant positive linear corre-
lation between serum testosterone level and nonverbal intelligence only in right-handed,
FS- male subjects with right eye preference. The female subjects did not show any
similar relationship between these parameters. Thus, testosterone may exhibit a sig-
nificant relation to nonverbal intelligence even in adult men. This result seems to be
conceivable because testosterone is mainly a male hormone.
Tan (1990 a and b) has previously provided a detailed analysis concerning the
association of serum testosterone with nonverbal intelligence in male and female
young adults. The present work is in accord with the main result that there is a
positive correlation between serum testosterone and nonverbal intelligence especially
in right-handed young men with right eye preference. It is possible that this asso-
Downloaded By: [TÜBTAK EKUAL] At: 13:35 7 August 2009

ciation would be a result of earlier brain development before puberty, since there
was no significant correlation between serum testosterone level and nonverbal in-
telligence in right-handed male subjects with mixed-eye preference. However, there
are numerous reports providing evidence for a relationship between physical maturity
and cognitive performance (see Komnenich et al. (1978). Broverman et al. (1964)
have suggested that this relationship may be mediated by gonadal hormones. That
is, sex hormones would raise the level of central norepinephrine by inhibiting the
enzyme monoamineoxidase, and are, therefore, associated with activation of arousal,
which, in turn, would facilitate cognitive performance.
In accord with the present work, Christiansen and Knussman (1987) have reported
that serum testosterone level showed a significantly positive correlation with mea-
sures of spatial ability and a significantly negative correlation with measures of ver-
bal production in young men. These authors did not report the hand and eye pref-
erences of their subjects. There are, however, contradictory findings about the role
of testosterone in cognitive abilities. Some authors have found that there is a positive
relationship between serum estosterone and spatial abilities (see Christiansen and
Knussman, 1987). Others have postulated that testosterone has a negative influence
on spatial abilities in men (see Christiansen and Knussman, 1987).
As generally accepted, there are sex differences in ceretain cognitive abilities.
Females seem to be better than males on certain tests of verbal skill, whereas males
excel on certain tests of visual spatial skill. The results of the present work suggest
that this sex-related difference in cognitive ability may be related to testosterone.
Mann et al. (1990) have reported that the sex-related differences in cognitive abil-
ities are independent of culture. They concluded that “males will be more likely than
females to exhibit the effects of testosterone.” This argument was confirmed by the
results of the present work.

REFERENCES

Broverman, D. M . , Broverman, I. K . , Vogel, W . , Palmer, R . , & Klaiber, E. L. (1964). Cognitive


style and physical development. Child Development. 35, 1343- 1359.
216 U. TAN AND A. AKGUN

Christiansen, K., & Knussman, R . (1987). Sex hormones and cognitive functioning in men. Neurop-
sychobiology, 18, 21-36.
Komnenich, P . , Lane, S . C., Dickey, R. P., & Stone, S. C. (1978). Gonodal hormones and cognitive
performance. Physiological Psychology, 6 , 115- 120.
Mann, V . A., Sasanuma, S . , Sakuma, N., & Masaki, S. (1990). Sex differences in cognitive abilities:
A cross-cultural perspective. Neuropsychologia, 28, 1063- 1077.
Nieschlag, E., & Loriaux, D. L. (1972). Radioimmunoassay for plasma testosterone. Zeitsrhrifi fur
Klinische Chemie und Klinische Biologie. 10, 164-168.
Oldfield, R. C . (1970). The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh Inventory. Neu-
r?psychulogia. 9, 97-1 14.
Tan, U . (1990 a). Testosterone and nonverbal intelligence in right-handed men and women. Internaiional
Journal of Neuroscience, 54, 277-282.
Tan, U . (1990 b). Relationship of testosterone and nonverbal intelligence to hand preference and hand
skill in right-handed young adults. Internafional Journal of Neuroscience, 5 4 , 283-290.
Downloaded By: [TÜBTAK EKUAL] At: 13:35 7 August 2009

You might also like