Saliva Testing Predicts Aggression in Boys

A new study indicates that a simple saliva test could be an effective tool in predicting violent behaviour.

The pilot study, led by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and published this week online in the journal Psychiatric Quarterly, suggests a link between salivary concentrations of certain hormones and aggression.

Drew Barzman

Researchers, led by Drew Barzman, MD, a child and adolescent forensic psychiatrist at Cincinnati Children's, collected saliva samples from 17 boys ages 7-9 admitted to the hospital for psychiatric care to identify which children were most likely to show aggression and violence.

The samples, collected three times in one day shortly after admission, were tested for levels of three hormones: testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and cortisol.

The severity and frequency of aggression correlated with the levels of these hormones.

Barzman's team focused on rapid, real-time assessment of violence among child and adolescent inpatients, a common problem in psychiatric units, but he believes a fast and accurate saliva test could eventually have several other applications.

"We believe salivary hormone testing has the potential to help doctors monitor which treatments are working best for their patients," said Barzman. "And because mental health professionals are far more likely to be assaulted on the job than the average worker, it could offer a quick way to anticipate violent behaviour in child psychiatric units. Eventually, we hope this testing might also provide a tool to help improve safety in schools."

For this study, the saliva test was used in combination with other aggressive behavior tools, including the Brief Rating of Aggression by Children and Adolescents (BRACHA) questionnaire, an assessment tool also developed by Barzman's team to predict aggression and violence in the hospital.

"This study sample, while small, gives us the data we need to move forward," added Barzman. "We have more studies planned before we can reach a definitive conclusion, but developing a new tool to help us anticipate violent behaviour is our ultimate goal."

Reference
The Association Between Salivary Hormone Levels and Children’s Inpatient Aggression: A Pilot Study. Psychiatric Quarterly, 2013; DOI: 10.1007/s11126-013-9260-8

Testosterone reduces the empathetic responses in Women

Testosterone - Lauded by some and viewed with suspicion by others, few people have a completely neutral view of the hormone that separates boys from girls.

According to the extreme male brain theory of autism, the organising effects of testosterone on the brain in utero, and its ongoing shaping of social behaviors throughout life, explains why men exhibit more aggressive, risk-taking behaviour than women do.

It may also account for the social intelligence deficits of people with autism and the skewed gender ratio of the disorder.

A new study shows that even a little bit of testosterone administered under the tongue can cause a woman to show less empathy — to behave, in other words, more like a man.

This is especially true, researchers say, when a woman has been exposed to higher-than-average levels of testosterone as a fetus.

The 2D:4D Finger Test
One increasingly accepted marker of fetal androgen exposure is the 2D:4D ratio, comparing the length of the index finger to that of the ring finger on the right hand. In women, the ring finger is typically longer than the index finger, whereas in men, or in individuals with high fetal testosterone exposure, the two fingers are of nearly identical length.

Exposure to lower testosterone levels in utero, as inferred by a higher 2D:4D ratio, may protect men from prostate cancer. Researchers have also reported lower 2D:4D ratios in children with autism and in their parents and siblings.

In the study, researchers administered a single 0.5 mg dose of testosterone to 16 young women between 20 and 25 years of age in one session, and a single dose of placebo in a second session 48 hours later. The women experienced a ten-fold increase in blood testosterone levels 15 minutes after intake, with the levels returning to baseline in about an hour and a half.

During that time, the participants took a test of cognitive empathy called Reading the Mind in the Eyes, which asks them to infer the emotions expressed in a photograph of a pair of eyes. Interestingly, 75 percent of the women in the study achieved lower scores on the test after testosterone than after placebo.

When the researchers compared the women's 2D:4D ratios, as computed from scans of their right hands, they found something even more interesting: the women with the lowest 2D:4D ratios (highest fetal testosterone exposure) showed the most significant decrease in empathy as measured by the test.

This may not be not a slam-dunk for the extreme male brain theory, but the results jibe with other studies that have found a continuum of social cognition abilities.

Estrogen, Puberty and Autism | Neurodiversity

Estrogen, Puberty and Autism | Neurodiversity

To what degree have high and low-fat diets influenced human evolution? If low fat delays puberty and results in more brain growth, might this be because more synapses are useful for finding more fat?

When there is more fat in diets and puberty rates drop, for a woman there is a greater number of children produced over a single lifetime. Less fat in diet, fewer children produced. This seems like an evolutionary process.

Do thin males with less fat have less estrogen, reach puberty later, have bigger brains and exhibit more neotenous features?

Should autistic males be on extremely low-fat diets so that they reach puberty later, thus allowing more time for their brains to mature?

Is the degree of brain synapse pruning that occurs in infancy related to the estrogen levels in the mother or the child? High mother testosterone levels encourage higher rates of autism, which may be directly related to less pervasive synapse pruning. Is it possible that a high mother estrogen level results in low male baby estrogen levels that prolong or diminish the testosterone prunings?

In other words, the Simon Baron-Cohen research regarding mother testosterone levels and autism may be related to mother estrogen levels. If low estrogen at puberty translates to delayed puberty, delayed testosterone surges and increased brain growth, then the same process may be engaged during the first testosterone surges that compel a diminution of the right cerebral hemisphere during infancy. Low estrogen levels as an embryo, infant and toddler may have a direct impact on cerebral lateralization and synapse production.

Another interesting article 'Introduction to Neotenty' Here ............