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Serum testosterone levels in male and female subjects with standard and
anomalous dominance
Üner Tan a
a
Medical Faculty, Atatürk University, Institute of Physiology, Erzurum, Turkey

Online Publication Date: 01 June 1991

To cite this Article Tan, Üner(1991)'Serum testosterone levels in male and female subjects with standard and anomalous
dominance',International Journal of Neuroscience,58:3,211 — 214
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SERUM TESTOSTERONE LEVELS IN MALE AND

FEMALE SUBJECTS WITH STANDARD AND
ANOMALOUS DOMINANCE
UNER TAN
Atatiirk University, Medical Faculty, Institute of Physiology, Erzurum, Turkey

(Received December 24, 1990)

Serum testosterone levels were determined in female and male subjects. Hand preference was assessed by
the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Subjects with anomalous dominance (left-handers, mixed-handers,
and right-handers with familial sinistrality) were compared to subjects with standard dominance (right-
handers without familial sinistrality). The mean serum testosterone levels were found to be signficantly
higher in subjects with anomalous dominance than those with standard dominance. It was concluded that
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the results are in accord with the testosterone hypothesis of cerebral lateralization.

Keywords: tesrosterone, hand preference, dominance,female, male

According to the testosterone hypothesis of cerebral lateralization (Geschwind &

Behan, 1982, 1984; Geschwind & Galaburda, 1985 a, b), testosterone causes a delay
in development of some cortical regions in the left cerebral hemisphere, which would
favor growth of cortical regions on the opposite side, and in unaffected regions of the
same side. Recently, Casey and Nuttall (in press) have provided a detailed account of
this theory. Based on the Geschwind-Behan-Galaburda theory, these authors
showed that females with anomalous dominance (consisting of left-handed and
ambidextrous as well as right-handed women with first degree nonright-handed
relatives) exhibit increased masculinity and/or decreased femininity as compared to
those with standard dominance (right-handed women with all right-handed first
degree relatives). In this above mentioned study, dominance (hand preference) was
measured using the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971); masculine-
feminine behaviors were measured in terms of high masculine-low feminine sex role
identity on the Bem Test of Sex Role Identity and tomboy behavior was assessed
through a Tomboy Scale. Casey and Nuttall suggested that the part of the puzzle
linking testosterone levels with handedness needs to be studied in future research. In
fact, I have recently shown that there is a significant negative linear correlation
between the degree of right-hand preference and serum testosterone levels, especially
in females (Tan, 1990). The results partly supported the testosterone hypothesis of
cerebral lateralization. In the present work, this hypothesis was retested in light of
Casey and Nuttall’s findings. It was hypothesized that subjects (male and female) with
anomalous dominance would have higher serum testosterone levels than those with
standard dominance. The results were found to be consistent with this working
hypotheses.

METHODS

Subjects were 19 female and 66 male students ranging in age from 18 to 20 years,
healthy, devoid of neurological and psychiatric signs and symptoms.

21 1
 212 u. TAN
Hand preference (dominance) was assessed using the Edinburgh Handedness In-
ventory (Oldfield, I97 1). Following Geschwind’s suggestion (personel communi-
cation), a laterality score was obtained from this questionaire; no quotient was
calculated. This laterality score was called the Geschwind Score and abbreviated GS
(Tan, 1988). Factor analysis of the Edinburgh Handedness factor showed that it does
measure a unitary handedness factor that is stable across sex over a test-retest interval
(McFarland & Anderson, 1980; White & Ashton, 1976).
Subjects exhibiting standard dominance included right-handers (GSs > 40) with
right-handed first degree relatives. Subjects with anomalous dominance consisted of
left-handers (GSs < 0), mixed-handers (GSs from 0 to 40) and right-handers with at
least one nonright-handed first degree relative.
To measure the serum testosterone level, venous blood was taken into a lithium test
tube. The plasma was separated and serum testosterone level was determined by using
tritium-marked radio-immunoassays (Nieschlag & Loriaux, 1972).
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RESULTS

Male Subjects
The mean serum testosterone levels were found to be 610.5 ng/dL (S.D. = 208.4) and
856.5ng/dL (S.D. = 184.5) for the male subjects with standard and anomalous
dominance, respectively. Two sample analysis showed that the mean serum testos-
terone level was significantly higher in subjects with anomalous dominance than those
with standard dominance ( t = 4.55, df = 64, p = .OOO). Figure 1 shows the distri-
bution of serum testosterone levels in males with standard and anomalous dominance.
Chi-squared goodness-of-fit-statistic indicated that the serum testosterone levels
could be described by a normal distribution (x2 = 4.48, df = 5, p = .48 for the
subjects with standard dominance; x2 = 0.09, df = 1 , p = .76 for the subjects with
anomalous dominance).

Female Subjects
The mean serum testosterone levels were found to be 48.8 ng/dL (S.D. = 32.5) and
100.5ng/dL (S.D. = 50.4) for the female subjects with standard and anomalous
dominance, respectively. The difference between means was found to be statistically
significant ( t = 2.72, df = 17, p = .014). Figure 2 shows the mean serum testos-
terone levels in females with standard and anomolous dominance.

DISCUSSION

In accord with the Geschwind-Behan-Galaburda hypothesis of cerebral lateraliza-

tion, it was found, in this work, that the mean serum testosterone level was signifi-
cantly higher in the male and female subjects with anomalous dominance than in
those with standard dominance. As mentioned above, Casey and Nuttall (in press)
reported that females with anomalous dominance rate themselves lower on feminine
behaviour than do females with standard dominance; standard dominance females
have significantly higher feminine sex role identification than the norm. Accordingly,
the results of the present work suggest that females with anomalous dominancea have
also higher serum testosterone than those with standard dominance, which can, in
 TESTOSTERONE AND HAND PREFERENCE 213

SERUM TESTOBTERONE LEVELS IN THE

MALE SUBJECTS WITH STANDARD
AND ANOMALOUS DOMINANCE

NUMBER OF SUBJECTS

................................................................

" ............. " "_

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2826 412,s 662,6 712,s 882,s l(nP,S 1182,s 1012,6

SERUM TESTOSTERONE LEVEL (ng/dL)

FIGURE I Distribution of serum testosterone levels in male subjects with standard and anomalous
dominance

turn, be related to low feminine behavior, high masculine sex role identification, and
low feminine sex role identification in women with anomalous dominance.
I have recently provided evidence that there is a negative linear relationship
between serum testosterone levels and the degree of right-hand preference in females
(FS-, FS+) and in males with familial sinistrality (Tan, 1990). The results of the

THE MEAN SERUM TESTOBTERONE LEVELS

IN FEMALES WITH STANDARD
AND ANOMALOUS DOMINANCE

STANDARD ANOMALOUS

FIGURE 2 Mean serum testosterone levels in females with standard and anomalous dominance. Dotted
bars refer to + 1 SDs.
 214 0.TAN

present work are in agreement with these results. However, there was not a significant
correlation between serum testosterone and the degree of right hand preference in
males without familial sinistrality. The asymmetric effects of testosterone might be
more pronounced in males with familial sinistrality than those without familial
sinistrality. The testosterone hypothesis of cerebral lateralization and behavioral
studies should be analyzed in conjunction with eye and foot preferences in addition
to hand preference, since this hypothesis posits that testosterone would cause a delay
in development of some cortical regions on the left side and favor the growth of
cortical regions on the contralateral side as well as in the ipsilateral unaffected regions.

REFERENCES

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developmental learning disorders. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 79, 5097-
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