Androgyny and atypical sensory sensitivity associated with savant ability: a comparison between Klinefelter syndrome and sexual minorities assigned male at birth.

Introduction: The (EMB) theory, a major causal hypothesis of autism (ASD: autism spectrum disorder), attributes excess androgens during early development as one of the causes. While studies have generally followed the EMB theory in females at birth, the co-occurrence of ASD in males at birth has been observed in conditions that are assumed to be associated with reduced androgen action during early development, including Klinefelter syndrome (KS) and sexual minorities. ASD is also associated with atypical sensory sensitivity, synesthesia, and savant syndrome.

Giftedness and atypical sexual differentiation: enhanced perceptual functioning through estrogen deficiency instead of androgen excess.

Syndromic autism spectrum conditions (ASC), such as Klinefelter syndrome, also manifest hypogonadism. Compared to the popular Extreme Male Brain theory, the Enhanced Perceptual Functioning model explains the connection between ASC, savant traits, and giftedness more seamlessly, and their co-emergence with atypical sexual differentiation. Overexcitability of primary sensory inputs generates a relative enhancement of local to global processing of stimuli, hindering the abstraction of communication signals, in contrast to the extraordinary local information processing skills in some individuals.

Testosterone levels and discounting delayed monetary gains and losses in male humans.

Objectives: Although impulsivity has been associated with androgens (e.g., testosterone), little is known regarding the relationship between testosterone levels and impulsivity in intertemporal choice (delay discounting).

[Analysis of salivary testosterone by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry: correlation with serum bioavailable testosterone and aging].

Purpose: To demonstrate that the salivary testosterone (T) concentration measured by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is a sensitive biomarker of serum bioavailable testosterone (bio T) concentration and it's decrease with age.

Method: Saliva and blood samples were collected from healthy 53 Japanese men (16-66yr) three times a day (9: 00-10: 00, 13: 00-14: 00, 17: 00-18: 00). Salivary T and serum total T levels were compared with serum bio T levels fractionated with concanavaline A.