Sex hormones influence human cognitive pattern.

The major sex differences in cognitive skills are summarized, and the role of sex hormones in early organization and possible maintenance of these differences is discussed. Using animal models and human hormonal anomalies, a good case can be made that prenatal androgens strongly influence adult cognitive pattern, though the relation between baseline androgens and spatial ability, for example, need not be linear. Moreover, men and women remain sensitive to variation in hormonal state, as evidenced in the fluctuations in cognitive and motor performance across natural diurnal, menstrual and circannual rhythms. Evidence from administration of exogenous hormones in humans is more equivocal, though this field ultimately should yield useful information.