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Testosterone?
By Richard | September 11, 2007
Prenatal testosterone may play autism role: study
Michael Kahn | Reuters
Children exposed to high levels of testosterone in the womb showed more autism-related traits later in life, according to findings that suggest the male hormone may play a key role in the complex brain disorder.
The results support a hypothesis that higher levels of testosterone may contribute to autism and reinforce findings from tests on animals, said Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at Britain’s Cambridge University, who worked on the study.
He called the findings of the ongoing research promising but cautioned that they did not show a direct link between autism and testosterone and said other factors could be involved. None of the 235 children in the study had autism.
“It is a significant correlation and remains significant after you control for other factors,” he said on Tuesday at a meeting sponsored by the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
What is causing the spike in testosterone was not clear, though Baron-Cohen said environmental factors could be at play. MORE
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