The effects of precocious adrenarche on cognition and hemispheric specialization.
Cognitive skills were assessed in 13 females with a history of precocious adrenarche (PA). They were of average intelligence. In terms of lateralized cognitive skills, PA had no effect on verbal fluency. The spatial abilities of females with a history of PA, who had reached gonarche (were fully pubertal), were inferior to those of females tested in the midst of PA and to population controls. The physiologic/hormonal changes associated with normal adrenarche may curtail further specialization of the right hemisphere, resulting in a relative spatial deficit among females in general, who as a group reach adrenarche earlier than males. This spatial performance deficit is exaggerated in females with PA.
Nass
R
R
Department of Pediatrics, New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center, New York 10021.
Baker
S
S
Sadler
A E
AE
Sidtis
J J
JJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000728:Androgens / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000503:physiopathology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010897:Pitch Discrimination / Q000502:physiology; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000503:physiopathology; D011629:Puberty, Precocious / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D014888:Wechsler Scales
D000728:Androgens