中老年男性性激素水平与认知功能的关系

Abstract Objective: Study the relationship between sex hormones and cognitive function in aged male. Methods: The serum sex hormones including Free Testosterone(FT), Total Testosterone(TT), Estradiol(E2), Prolactin(PRL) and Luteotropic Hormone(LH) of 74 elderly men(47-75 years old, mean 58.73) were measured by radioimmunoassay. They were all applied the cognitive tests of episodic memory and verbal fluency. For the episodic memory, four experiments examined picture, digit and words memory separately. Four verbal fluency tests were performed in the middle of each episodic memory. The 74 men were divided into two groups according to the levels of their sex hormones respectively, with each group had 37 subjects. Data was analyzed by the software of SPSS 11.0. Results: Mean age and the mean years of formal education had no significant difference between the groups; Men in the group with higher levels of FT had significantly higher scores in the tests of picture memory and words memory；Men in the group with higher levels of TT had significantly higher scores in the tests of verbal fluency4, picture memory and words memory；Men in the group with higher levels of E2 had significantly higher scores in the tests of picture memory and verbal fluency3,4；There were no correlations between PRL or LH and the cognitive tests. Conclusions: 1 Sex hormones (especially FT, TT, E2) did have effect on the cognitive function in aged male, higher levels of hormones related with higher scores of some cognitive tests. 2 Among the cognitive functions, picture memory and words memory performance seemed being effected by the sex hormones most.

8～12岁男孩的性激素与智力、人格的关系

Recently there emerged more and more researhes concerning about sex hormone-related cognitive ability and behaviours. Few were carried out in pre- to early adolescent children., and the objective of the current study is to investigate whether there are covariance between sex hormones, intelligence and personality in 232 pre- to early adolescent boys, including 62 gifted boys. Indexes of sex hormone levels were salivary testosterone and estradiol concentrations, the 2D:4D digit ratio ( a reliable pointer of prenatal sex hormone concentraions). The Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test and a Chinese version of Children’s Personality Questionaire was applied in the current study. The main findings are: 1) salivary sex hormone concentrations significantly positively correlated with intelligence performance in 10-year-old boys; 2) salivary testosterone negatively related to intelligence performance in 12-year-old boys; 3) gifted boys bears lower testosterone concentrations in both prenatal period and pre- to early adolescence; 4) for personality, higher salivary estradiol was related to extraversion and digit ratios correlated with several personality factors in 8-year-old boys. In conclusion, results in the current study suggested that for male early maturers, intelligence may be negatively influenced by early coming androgen surge. In contrast, male late matures may benefit from their lately and moderately increasing hormone. Besides, the results suggested that the relationship between 2D:4D digit ratio and personality may also be paid attention to.