| Abstract: |
Cognitive skills were assessed in 13 females with a history of precocious adrenarche (PA). They were of average intelligence. In terms of lateralized cognitive skills, PA had no effect on verbal fluency. The spatial abilities of females with a history of PA, who had reached gonarche (were fully pubertal), were inferior to those of females tested in the midst of PA and to population controls. The physiologic/hormonal changes associated with normal adrenarche may curtail further specialization of the right hemisphere, resulting in a relative spatial deficit among females in general, who as a group reach adrenarche earlier than males. This spatial performance deficit is exaggerated in females with PA. © 1990. |
| Keywords: |
adolescent; child; preschool child; child, preschool; androgen; pathophysiology; brain cortex; hypothalamus hypophysis system; precocious puberty; physiology; neuropsychological test; neuropsychological tests; cognition; hearing; verbal learning; hemispheric dominance; cerebral cortex; androgens; learning; dominance, cerebral; speech perception; hypophysis adrenal system; hypothalamo-hypophyseal system; pituitary-adrenal system; depth perception; puberty, precocious; human; female; article; support, non-u.s. gov't; support, u.s. gov't, p.h.s.; intelligence test; wechsler scales; dichotic listening; dichotic listening tests; pitch discrimination; space perception
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