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Studies of people with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS)

How do prenatal hormones affect psychological development?

Digit Ratio

For example, Berenbaum, Bryk, Nowak, Quigley, and Moffat (2009) demonstrated that digit ratio is not a reliable indicator of prenatal androgen exposure because individuals with complete CAIS varied notably in their ratios.

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fMRI Study

We showed that genes on the Y chromosome are insufficient to cause male-typical brain responses to sexual images because women with CAIS had brain responses similar to typical women. If genes on the Y chromosome were sufficient, then women with CAIS would have shown male-typical brain response patterns. This indicates that male-typical brain responses to sexual images are instead likely shaped by androgens, though socialization may also play a role (Hamann, Stevens, Vick, Bryk, Quigley, Berenbaum, & Wallen, 2014).

All of our imaging studies were completed with the help of the Social, Life, and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center (SLEIC) at Penn State.
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Click here to go to the SLEIC website

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