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Early androgen exposure and human gender development

Overview of attention for article published in Biology of Sex Differences, February 2015
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • One of the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#10 of 590)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
8 news outlets
blogs
1 blog
twitter
167 X users
facebook
2 Facebook pages
wikipedia
6 Wikipedia pages
googleplus
2 Google+ users
video
4 YouTube creators

Citations

dimensions_citation
147 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
269 Mendeley
citeulike
1 CiteULike
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Title
Early androgen exposure and human gender development
Published in
Biology of Sex Differences, February 2015
DOI 10.1186/s13293-015-0022-1
Pubmed ID
Authors

Melissa Hines, Mihaela Constantinescu, Debra Spencer

Abstract

During early development, testosterone plays an important role in sexual differentiation of the mammalian brain and has enduring influences on behavior. Testosterone exerts these influences at times when the testes are active, as evidenced by higher concentrations of testosterone in developing male than in developing female animals. This article critically reviews the available evidence regarding influences of testosterone on human gender-related development. In humans, testosterone is elevated in males from about weeks 8 to 24 of gestation and then again during early postnatal development. Individuals exposed to atypical concentrations of testosterone or other androgenic hormones prenatally, for example, because of genetic conditions or because their mothers were prescribed hormones during pregnancy, have been consistently found to show increased male-typical juvenile play behavior, alterations in sexual orientation and gender identity (the sense of self as male or female), and increased tendencies to engage in physically aggressive behavior. Studies of other behavioral outcomes following dramatic androgen abnormality prenatally are either too small in their numbers or too inconsistent in their results, to provide similarly conclusive evidence. Studies relating normal variability in testosterone prenatally to subsequent gender-related behavior have produced largely inconsistent results or have yet to be independently replicated. For studies of prenatal exposures in typically developing individuals, testosterone has been measured in single samples of maternal blood or amniotic fluid. These techniques may not be sufficiently powerful to consistently detect influences of testosterone on behavior, particularly in the relatively small samples that have generally been studied. The postnatal surge in testosterone in male infants, sometimes called mini-puberty, may provide a more accessible opportunity for measuring early androgen exposure during typical development. This approach has recently begun to be used, with some promising results relating testosterone during the first few months of postnatal life to later gender-typical play behavior. In replicating and extending these findings, it may be important to assess testosterone when it is maximal (months 1 to 2 postnatal) and to take advantage of the increased reliability afforded by repeated sampling.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 167 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 269 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Brazil 2 <1%
Indonesia 1 <1%
Sweden 1 <1%
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Mexico 1 <1%
Unknown 263 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 57 21%
Student > Master 43 16%
Student > Ph. D. Student 39 14%
Researcher 20 7%
Student > Doctoral Student 14 5%
Other 41 15%
Unknown 55 20%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 69 26%
Medicine and Dentistry 31 12%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 26 10%
Neuroscience 21 8%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 11 4%
Other 42 16%
Unknown 69 26%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 214. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 March 2024.
All research outputs
#183,393
of 25,589,756 outputs
Outputs from Biology of Sex Differences
#10
of 590 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#1,938
of 270,649 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Biology of Sex Differences
#1
of 5 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,589,756 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 590 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 18.8. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 270,649 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 5 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than all of them