Low Perinatal Androgens Predict Recalled Childhood Gender Nonconformity in Men.

The contributions of gonadal hormones to the development of human behavioral sex differences are subjects of intense scientific and social interest. Isolated gonadotropin-releasing-hormone deficiency (IGD) is a rare endocrine disorder that can reveal a possible role of early gonadal hormones. IGD is characterized by low or absent gonadal hormone production after the first trimester of gestation, but external genitalia and hence gender of rearing are concordant with chromosomal and gonadal sex. We investigated recalled childhood gender nonconformity in men (n = 65) and women (n = 32) with IGD and typically developing men (n = 463) and women (n = 1,207). Men with IGD showed elevated childhood gender nonconformity, particularly if they also reported undescended testes at birth, a marker of low perinatal androgens. Women with IGD did not differ from typically developing women. These results indicate that early androgen exposure after the first trimester contributes to male-typical gender-role behaviors in childhood.

Relationships between ovarian hormone concentrations and mental rotations performance in naturally-cycling women.

Circulating gonadal hormones have been linked to variation in the structure and function of the adult human brain, raising the question of how cognition is affected by sex hormones in adulthood. The impacts of progestogens and estrogens are of special interest due to the widespread use of hormone supplementation. Multiple studies have analyzed relationships between ovarian hormones and mental rotation performance, one of the largest known cognitive sex differences; however, results are conflicting. These discrepancies are likely due in part to modest sample sizes and reliance on self-report measures to assess menstrual cycle phase. The present study aimed to clarify the impact of progestogens and estrogens on visuospatial cognition by relating mental rotation task performance to salivary hormone concentrations. Across two studies totaling 528 naturally-cycling premenopausal women, an internal meta-analysis suggested a small, positive effect of within-subjects changes in progesterone on MRT performance (estimate = 0.44, p = 0.014), though this result should be interpreted with caution given multiple statistical analyses. Between-subjects differences and within-subject changes in estradiol did not significantly predict MRT. These results shed light on the potential cognitive effects of endogenous and exogenous hormone action, and the proximate mechanisms modulating spatial cognition.

No evidence that hormonal contraceptive use or circulating sex steroids predict complex emotion recognition.

Relatively little is known about the effects of endogenous and exogenous steroid hormones on ecologically relevant behavioral and cognitive phenotypes in women, such as emotion recognition, despite the widespread use of steroid hormone-altering hormonal contraceptives (HCs). Though some previous studies have examined the effect of HC use, estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone on emotion recognition in women, they have been limited by cross-sectional designs, small sample sizes (total n < 100), and compromised statistical power to detect significant effects. Using data from two test sessions in a large sample of naturally cycling women (NC; n = 192) and women on HCs (n = 203), we found no group differences in emotion recognition; further, the lack of group differences in emotion recognition was not modulated by item difficulty or emotional valence. Among NC women who provided saliva samples across two sessions that were assayed for estradiol and progesterone concentrations, we found no compelling evidence across models that between-subject differences and within-subject fluctuations in these ovarian hormones predicted emotion recognition accuracy, with the exception that between-subjects estradiol negatively predicted emotion recognition for emotions of neutral valence (p = .042). Among HC women who provided saliva samples across two sessions that were assayed for testosterone, we found no compelling evidence that between-subjects differences and within-subject fluctuations in testosterone predicted emotion recognition accuracy. Overall, our analyses provide little support for the idea that circulating endogenous or exogenous ovarian hormones influence emotion recognition in women.

Timing of peripubertal steroid exposure predicts visuospatial cognition in men: Evidence from three samples.

Experiments in male rodents demonstrate that sensitivity to the organizational effects of steroid hormones decreases across the pubertal window, with earlier androgen exposure leading to greater masculinization of the brain and behavior. Similarly, some research suggests the timing of peripubertal exposure to sex steroids influences aspects of human psychology, including visuospatial cognition. However, prior studies have been limited by small samples and/or imprecise measures of pubertal timing. We conducted 4 studies to clarify whether the timing of peripubertal hormone exposure predicts performance on male-typed tests of spatial cognition in adulthood. In Studies 1 (n = 1095) and 2 (n = 173), we investigated associations between recalled pubertal age and spatial cognition in typically developing men, controlling for current testosterone levels in Study 2. In Study 3 (n = 51), we examined the relationship between spatial performance and the age at which peripubertal hormone replacement therapy was initiated in a sample of men with Isolated GnRH Deficiency. Across Studies 1-3, effect size estimates for the relationship between spatial performance and pubertal timing ranged from. -0.04 and -0.27, and spatial performance was unrelated to salivary testosterone in Study 2. In Study 4, we conducted two meta-analyses of Studies 1-3 and four previously published studies. The first meta-analysis was conducted on correlations between spatial performance and measures of the absolute age of pubertal timing, and the second replaced those correlations with correlations between spatial performance and measures of relative pubertal timing where available. Point estimates for correlations between pubertal timing and spatial cognition were -0.15 and -0.12 (both p < 0.001) in the first and second meta-analyses, respectively. These associations were robust to the exclusion of any individual study. Our results suggest that, for some aspects of neural development, sensitivity to gonadal hormones declines across puberty, with earlier pubertal hormone exposure predicting greater sex-typicality in psychological phenotypes in adulthood. These results shed light on the processes of behavioral and brain organization and have implications for the treatment of IGD and other conditions wherein pubertal timing is pharmacologically manipulated.

Are only infants held more often on the left? If so, why? Testing the attention-emotion hypothesis with an infant, a vase, and two chimeric tests, one "emotional," one not.

Most adults, especially women, hold infants and dolls but not books or packages on the left side. One reason may be that attention is more often leftward in response to infants, unlike emotionally neutral objects like books and packages. Women's stronger bias may reflect greater responsiveness to infants. Previously, we tested the attention hypothesis by comparing women's side-of-hold of a doll, book, and package with direction-of-attention on the Chimeric Faces Test (CFT) [Harris, L. J., Cárdenas, R. A., Spradlin, Jr., M. P., & Almerigi, J. B. (2010). Why are infants held on the left? A test of the attention hypothesis with a doll, a book, and a bag. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 15(5), 548-571. doi:10.1080/13576500903064018]. Only the doll was held more often to the left, and only for the doll were side-of-hold and CFT scores related, with left-holders showing a stronger left-attention bias than right-holders. In the current study, we tested men and women with a doll and the CFT along with a vase as a neutral object and a "non-emotional" chimeric test. Again, only the doll was held more often to the left, but now, although both chimeric tests showed left-attention biases, scores were unrelated to side-of-hold. Nor were there sex differences. The results support left-hold selectivity but not the attention hypothesis, with or without the element of emotion. They also raise questions about the contribution of sex-of-holder. We conclude with suggestions for addressing these issues.

Do women's preferences for masculine voices shift across the ovulatory cycle?

Are estrous mate preference shifts robust? This question is the subject of controversy within human evolutionary sciences. For nearly two decades, mate preference shifts across the ovulatory cycle were considered an important feature of human sexual selection, directing women's attention toward mates with indicators of "good genes" in their fertile phase, when conception is possible. However, several recent studies on masculine faces, bodies and behaviors did not find evidence supporting this account, known as the good genes ovulatory shift hypothesis. Furthermore, evidence that preferences for masculine characteristics in men's voices are related to women's cycle phase and hormonal status is still equivocal. Here, we report two independent within-subject studies from different labs with large sample sizes (N = 202 tested twice in Study 1; N = 157 tested four times in Study 2) investigating cycle shifts in women's preferences for masculine voices. In both studies, hormonal status was assessed directly using salivary assays of steroid hormones. We did not find evidence for effects of cycle phase, conception risk, or steroid hormone levels on women's preferences for masculine voices. Rather, our studies partially provide evidence for cycle shifts in women's general attraction to men's voices regardless of masculine characteristics. Women's relationship status and self-reported stress did not moderate these findings, and the hormonal pattern that influences these shifts remains somewhat unclear. We consider how future work can clarify the mechanisms underlying psychological changes across the ovulatory cycle.

Are there vocal cues to human developmental stability? Relationships between facial fluctuating asymmetry and voice attractiveness.

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA), deviation from perfect bilateral symmetry, is thought to reflect an organism's relative inability to maintain stable morphological development in the face of environmental and genetic stressors. Previous research has documented negative relationships between FA and attractiveness judgments in humans, but scant research has explored relationships between the human voice and this putative marker of genetic quality in either sex. Only one study (and in women only) has explored relationships between vocal attractiveness and asymmetry of the face, a feature-rich trait space central in prior work on human genetic quality and mate choice. We therefore examined this relationship in three studies comprising 231 men and 240 women from two Western samples as well as Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania. Voice recordings were collected and rated for attractiveness, and FA was computed from two-dimensional facial images as well as, for a subset of men, three-dimensional facial scans. Through meta-analysis of our results and those of prior studies, we found a negative association between FA and vocal attractiveness that was highly robust and statistically significant whether we included effect sizes from previously published work, or only those from the present research, and regardless of the inclusion of any individual sample or method of assessing FA (e.g., facial or limb FA). Weighted mean correlations between FA and vocal attractiveness across studies were -.23 for men and -.29 for women. This research thus offers strong support for the hypothesis that voices provide cues to genetic quality in humans.

[Recurrent chronic parotiditis in childhood: An update of the literature]. / Parotiditis crónica recurrente infantil: una revisión actualizada de la literatura.

Recurrent childhood chronic parotiditis (RCCP) is a relevant pathology. Its diagnosis is mainly clinical, but it relies on imaging tests. The current treatment approach is diverse. The aim of this article is to update the clinical features, complementary tests, etiopathogenic models and therapeutic protocols of this disease. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A bibliographic search was performed in PUBMED using the free terms and MESH terms: RCCP, recurrent parotiditis, chronic parotiditis and parotiditis. The filters used were human patients, up to 18 years old, with abstract. In SCIELO the free terms included were Parotiditis and chronic. Articles published in English, Spanish or Portuguese until 2017 were included. RESULTS: In PUBMED 119 articles were found and 44 were included. The exclusion of the remaining articles was due to language, access to the article or absence of relationship between the article and the proposed revision. In SCIELO 6 articles were found 6 of which 5 were selected. The multidisciplinary asses of patients with RCCP is considered the appropriate treatment. Its diagnosis is clinical but it relies on imaging tests, such as echography and sialography. CONCLUSIONS: The current treatment approach is conservative, and the best available evidence supports the use of sialendoscopy with irrigation and administration of antibiotics and/or corticosteroids via the parotid duct. However, there would be proper results with intraglandular lavage with physiological solutions without the need for a sialendoscope.

Sexual selection on male vocal fundamental frequency in humans and other anthropoids.

In many primates, including humans, the vocalizations of males and females differ dramatically, with male vocalizations and vocal anatomy often seeming to exaggerate apparent body size. These traits may be favoured by sexual selection because low-frequency male vocalizations intimidate rivals and/or attract females, but this hypothesis has not been systematically tested across primates, nor is it clear why competitors and potential mates should attend to vocalization frequencies. Here we show across anthropoids that sexual dimorphism in fundamental frequency (F0) increased during evolutionary transitions towards polygyny, and decreased during transitions towards monogamy. Surprisingly, humans exhibit greater F0 sexual dimorphism than any other ape. We also show that low-F0 vocalizations predict perceptions of men's dominance and attractiveness, and predict hormone profiles (low cortisol and high testosterone) related to immune function. These results suggest that low male F0 signals condition to competitors and mates, and evolved in male anthropoids in response to the intensity of mating competition.

The face of female dominance: Women with dominant faces have lower cortisol.

The human face displays a wealth of information, including information about dominance and fecundity. Dominance and fecundity are also associated with lower concentrations of the stress hormone cortisol, suggesting that cortisol may negatively predict facial dominance and attractiveness. We digitally photographed 61 women's faces, had these images rated by men and women for dominance, attractiveness, and femininity, and explored relationships between these perceptions and women's salivary cortisol concentrations. In a first study, we found that women with more dominant-appearing, but not more attractive, faces had lower cortisol levels. These associations were not due to age, ethnicity, time since waking, testosterone, or its interaction with cortisol. In a second study, composite images of women with low cortisol were perceived as more dominant than those of women with high cortisol significantly more often than chance by two samples of viewers, with a similar but non-significant trend in a third sample. However, data on perceptions of attractiveness were mixed; low-cortisol images were viewed as more attractive by two samples of US viewers and as less attractive by a sample of Mexican viewers. Our results suggest that having a more dominant-appearing face may be associated with lower stress and hence lower cortisol in women, and provide further evidence regarding the information content of the human face.

Fulfilling desire: evidence for negative feedback between men's testosterone, sociosexual psychology, and sexual partner number.

Across human societies and many nonhuman animals, males have greater interest in uncommitted sex (more unrestricted sociosexuality) than do females. Testosterone shows positive associations with male-typical sociosexual behavior in nonhuman animals. Yet, it remains unclear whether the human sex difference in sociosexual psychology (attitudes and desires) is mediated by testosterone, whether any relationships between testosterone and sociosexuality differ between men and women, and what the nature of these possible relationships might be. In studies to resolve these questions, we examined relationships between salivary testosterone concentrations and sociosexual psychology and behavior in men and women. We measured testosterone in all men in our sample, but only in those women taking oral contraception (OC-using women) in order to reduce the influence of ovulatory cycle variation in ovarian hormone production. We found that OC-using women did not differ from normally-ovulating women in sociosexual psychology or behavior, but that circulating testosterone mediated the sex difference in human sociosexuality and predicted sociosexual psychology in men but not OC-using women. Moreover, when sociosexual psychology was controlled, men's sociosexual behavior (number of sexual partners) was negatively related to testosterone, suggesting that testosterone drives sociosexual psychology in men and is inhibited when those desires are fulfilled. This more complex relationship between androgens and male sexuality may reconcile some conflicting prior reports.

Women's attractiveness changes with estradiol and progesterone across the ovulatory cycle.

In many species, females are more sexually attractive to males near ovulation. Some evidence suggests a similar pattern in humans, but methodological limitations prohibit firm conclusions at present, and information on physiological mechanisms underlying any such pattern is lacking. In 202 normally-cycling women, we explored whether women's attractiveness changed over the cycle as a function of two likely candidates for mediating these changes: estradiol and progesterone. We scheduled women to attend one session during the late follicular phase and another during the mid-luteal phase. At each session, facial photographs, voice recordings and saliva samples were collected. All photographs and voice recordings were subsequently rated by men for attractiveness and by women for flirtatiousness and attractiveness to men. Saliva samples were assayed for estradiol and progesterone. We found that progesterone and its interaction with estradiol negatively predicted vocal attractiveness and overall (facial plus vocal) attractiveness to men. Progesterone also negatively predicted women's facial attractiveness to men and female-rated facial attractiveness, facial flirtatiousness and vocal attractiveness, but not female-rated vocal flirtatiousness. These results strongly suggest a pattern of increased attractiveness during peak fertility in the menstrual cycle and implicate estradiol and progesterone in driving these changes.

Voice change as a new measure of male pubertal timing: a study among Bolivian adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Age at menarche is often used to measure maturational tempo in girls. Unfortunately, no parallel marker exists for boys. It is suggested that voice change has a number of advantages as a marker of the timing and degree of male pubertal development. AIM: Traditional auxological methods are applied to voice change in order to compare differential development both between (males vs females; Tsimane vs North American; better vs worse condition) and within (voice vs height; fundamental frequency vs formant structure) populations. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Fundamental and formant frequencies, as well as height and weight, were measured for 172 Tsimane males and females, aged 8-23. Participants were assigned to 'better' or 'worse' condition based on a median split of height-for-age and weight-for-age z-scores. RESULTS: Results support dramatic vocal changes in males. Peak voice change among Tsimane male adolescents occurs∼1 year later than in an age-matched North American sample. Achieved adult male voices are also higher in the Tsimane. Tsimane males in worse condition experience voice change more than 1 year later than Tsimane males in better condition. CONCLUSION: Voice change has a number of attractive features as a marker of male pubertal timing including its methodological and technical simplicity as well as its social salience to group members.

[Universal screening program and early intervention (USPEI) in congenital bilateral sensorineural hearing loss in Chile]. / Programa de tamizaje universal e intervención precoz (PTUIP) en hipoacusia sensorioneural bilateral congénita: Tarea pendiente desde la perspectiva de políticas públicas de salud en Chile.

Congenital hearing loss is the total or partial inability to hear sounds through the ears. It is the most common disability in newborns in Chile and worldwide, and is a permanent condition. The direct impact on children who are not adequately diagnosed is the alteration in acquisition of language and cognitive skills and a decline in their social and school insertion, jeopardizing their professional and potentially productive life. Universal screening programs for hearing loss are essential for the diagnosis, since 50% of infants with hearing loss have no known risk factor. Screening before one month of age, confirmation before 3 months, and effective intervention before 6 months, allows the development of these children as if they had normal hearing. In Chile there is a selective program of screening for infants aged less than 32 weeks or 1,500 grams, as part of Explicit Health Guarantees, but it covers only 0.9% of newborns per year. Therefore, a large majority of children remain without diagnosis. The aim of this review is to compare the situation in Chile with other countries, raising the need to move towards a universal neonatal hearing loss screening program, and propose necessary conditions in terms of justification and implementation of a universal screening public policy.

Assessing Barriers and Facilitators to Lung Cancer Screening: Initial Findings from a Patient Navigation Intervention.

Low-dose computed tomography-based lung cancer screening represents a complex clinical undertaking that could require multiple referrals, appointments, and time-intensive procedures. These steps may pose difficulties and raise concerns among patients, particularly minority, under-, and uninsured populations. The authors implemented patient navigation to identify and address these challenges. They conducted a pragmatic randomized controlled trial of telephone-based navigation for lung cancer screening in an integrated, urban safety-net health care system. Following standardized protocols, bilingual (Spanish and English) navigators educated, motivated, and empowered patients to traverse the health system. Navigators made systematic contact with patients, recording standardized call characteristics in a study-specific database. Call type, duration, and content were recorded. Univariable and multivariable multinomial logistic regression was performed to investigate associations between call characteristics and reported barriers. Among 225 patients (mean age 63 years, 46% female, 70% racial/ethnic minority) assigned navigation, a total of 559 barriers to screening were identified during 806 telephone calls. The most common barrier categories were personal (46%), provider (30%), and practical (17%). System (6%) and psychosocial (1%) barriers were described by English-speaking patients, but not by Spanish-speaking patients. Over the course of the lung cancer screening process, provider-related barriers decreased 80% (P = 0.008). The authors conclude that patients undergoing lung cancer screening frequently report personal and health care provider-related barriers to successful participation. Barrier types may differ among patient populations and over the course of the screening process. Further understanding of these concerns may increase screening uptake and adherence. Clinical Trial Registration number: (NCT02758054).

Masculine voices signal men's threat potential in forager and industrial societies.

Humans and many non-human primates exhibit large sexual dimorphisms in vocalizations and vocal anatomy. In humans, same-sex competitors and potential mates attend to acoustic features of male vocalizations, but vocal masculinity especially increases perceptions of physical prowess. Yet, the information content of male vocalizations remains obscure. We therefore examined relationships between sexually dimorphic acoustic properties and men's threat potential. We first introduce a new measure of the structure of vocal formant frequencies, 'formant position' (Pf), which we show is more sexually dimorphic and more strongly related to height than is the most widely used measure of formant structure, 'formant dispersion', in both a US sample and a sample of Hadza foragers from Tanzania. We also show large sexual dimorphisms in the mean fundamental frequency (F0) and the within-utterance standard deviation in F0 (F0-s.d.) in both samples. We then explore relationships between these acoustic parameters and men's body size, strength, testosterone and physical aggressiveness. Each acoustic parameter was related to at least one measure of male threat potential. The most dimorphic parameters, F0 and Pf, were most strongly related to body size in both samples. In the US sample, F0 predicted testosterone levels, Pf predicted upper body strength and F0-s.d. predicted physical aggressiveness.

Differential voltage-dependent modulation of the ACh-gated K+ current by adenosine and acetylcholine.

Inhibitory regulation of the heart is determined by both cholinergic M2 receptors (M2R) and adenosine A1 receptors (A1R) that activate the same signaling pathway, the ACh-gated inward rectifier K+ (KACh) channels via Gi/o proteins. Previously, we have shown that the agonist-specific voltage sensitivity of M2R underlies several voltage-dependent features of IKACh, including the 'relaxation' property, which is characterized by a gradual increase or decrease of the current when cardiomyocytes are stepped to hyperpolarized or depolarized voltages, respectively. However, it is unknown whether membrane potential also affects A1R and how this could impact IKACh. Upon recording whole-cell currents of guinea-pig cardiomyocytes, we found that stimulation of the A1R-Gi/o-IKACh pathway with adenosine only caused a very slight voltage dependence in concentration-response relationships (~1.2-fold EC50 increase with depolarization) that was not manifested in the relative affinity, as estimated by the current deactivation kinetics (τ = 4074 ± 214 ms at -100 mV and τ = 4331 ± 341 ms at +30 mV; P = 0.31). Moreover, IKACh did not exhibit relaxation. Contrarily, activation of the M2R-Gi/o-IKACh pathway with acetylcholine induced the typical relaxation of the current, which correlated with the clear voltage-dependent effect observed in the concentration-response curves (~2.8-fold EC50 increase with depolarization) and in the IKACh deactivation kinetics (τ = 1762 ± 119 ms at -100 mV and τ = 1503 ± 160 ms at +30 mV; P = 0.01). Our findings further substantiate the hypothesis of the agonist-specific voltage dependence of GPCRs and that the IKACh relaxation is consequence of this property.

CardIAc: an open-source application for myocardial strain analysis.

PURPOSE: This paper presents CardIAc, an open-source application designed as an alternative to commercial software for left ventricle myocardial strain quantification in short-axis cardiac magnetic resonance images. The aim is to provide a useful extension for myocardial strain analysis that can be easily adapted to incorporate different strategies of motion tracking to improve the strain accuracy. In this way, users with programming skills can easily modify the code and adjust the program's performance according to their own scientific or clinical requirements. The software is intended for research and clinical use is not advised. METHODS: CardIAc was developed as a 3D Slicer extension for an easy installation and usability. The main contribution of this article is to provide a general workflow, going from data and segmentation loading, 3D heart modeling, analysis and several options for visualization of the myocardial strain. RESULTS: CardIAc strain feature was evaluated on a public dataset (Cardiac Motion Analysis Challenge-STACOM 2011) of 15 volunteers, and a synthetic one generated from this real dataset. Results on the real dataset show that cardIAc achieves suitable accuracy for myocardial motion estimation with a median error of 3.66 mm. In particular, global strain curves show strong correlation with the bibliography for healthy patients and similar approaches. On the other hand, results on the synthetic dataset show a mean global error of 4.07%, 7.76% and 8.18% for circumferential, radial and longitudinal strain. CONCLUSION: This paper introduces a new open-source application for strain analysis distributed under a BSD-style open-source license. Results demonstrate the capability and merits of the proposed application for strain analysis.

Evidence that perinatal ovarian hormones promote women's sexual attraction to men.

Ovarian estrogens may influence the development of the human brain and behavior, but there are few opportunities to test this possibility. Isolated GnRH deficiency (IGD) is a rare endocrine disorder that could provide evidence for the role of estrogens in organizing sexually differentiated phenotypes: Unlike typical development, development in individuals with IGD is characterized by low or absent gonadal hormone production after the first trimester of gestation. Because external genitalia develop in the first trimester, external appearance is nevertheless concordant with gonadal sex in people with IGD. We therefore investigated the effects of gonadal hormones on sexual orientation by comparing participants with IGD (n = 97) to controls (n = 1670). Women with IGD reported lower male-attraction compared with typically developing women. In contrast, no consistent sexuality differences between IGD and typically developing men were evident. Ovarian hormones after the first trimester appear to influence female-typical dimensions of sexual orientation.

Heterozygosity of the major histocompatibility complex predicts later self-reported pubertal maturation in men.

Individual variation in the age of pubertal onset is linked to physical and mental health, yet the factors underlying this variation are poorly understood. Life history theory predicts that individuals at higher risk of mortality due to extrinsic causes such as infectious disease should sexually mature and reproduce earlier, whereas those at lower risk can delay puberty and continue to invest resources in somatic growth. We examined relationships between a genetic predictor of infectious disease resistance, heterozygosity of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), referred to as the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene in humans, and self-reported pubertal timing. In a combined sample of men from Canada (n = 137) and the United States (n = 43), MHC heterozygosity predicted later self-reported pubertal development. These findings suggest a genetic trade-off between immunocompetence and sexual maturation in human males.