Go Back Research Article March, 1992

Effects of prenatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES) on hemispheric laterality and spatial ability in human males

Author Stephanie A. Sanders Author June Machover Reinisch

Abstract

Ten males exposed to diethylstilbestrol (DES), a nonsteroidal synthetic estrogen, during gestation were compared to their matched, unexposed brothers on measures of brain hemispheric specialization for processing nonlinguistic spatial information and cognitive abilities. DES exposure was associated with reduced hemispheric laterality and lowered spatial ability. These data provide direct evidence of a relationship between brain laterality, spatial cognitive ability, and prenatal exposure to hormones in human males. Further, the implications of these findings for understanding sexual differentiation of the human brain are discussed.

Keywords

Diethylstilbestrol (DES) prenatal exposure hemispheric laterality spatial ability brain specialization cognitive abilities synthetic estrogen nonlinguistic processing brain laterality sexual differentiation human brain hormone exposure cognitive impairment spatial cognitive ability gender differences
Details
Volume 26
Issue 1
Pages 62-75
DOI 10.1016/0018-506X(92)90032-Q
ISSN 1095-6867
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