Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

penntoday.upenn.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 257 posts

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#61

Post by somequixote »

EndXA wrote: post #10

Abstract of the original paper: > The capacity to infer others' mental states (known as ‘mind reading’ and ‘cognitive empathy’) is essential for social interactions across species, and its impairment characterizes psychopathological conditions such as autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. Previous studies reported that testosterone administration impaired cognitive empathy in healthy humans, and that a putative…

This abstract exhibits a trifecta of clarity, specificity, and interest.

Bravo.

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#62

Post by lazyasciiart »

seph-reed wrote: post #40
TheOperator wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Tend to resemble that of the gender that they identify as I hear this claim a lot but I've never actually understood what "resembles" actually means. The brain structures that transgender people have don't match typical male or female brains but how do you determine which brain transgender brains resemble the most? What is the criteria? To me to determine which brain trans brains were more similar to you would have…

I'm the antithesis of an expert in this. If someone has better information, I'm sure you'll let me know. What I've picked up thus far as the consistent physical differences between male and female brains are: 1. Dominant synapse connection direction. Males typically have more front to back connections than side to side. This may explain why females typically are better at multi-tasking, and males are typically more f…

That multitasking claim is looking less solid these days - https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#63

Post by edmundsauto »

Romanulus wrote: post #50
SolaceQuantum wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually curious how this changes the narrative of a trans person if testosterone doesn't have an effect on one's empathy.

The narrative of the trans person is what whatever he or she decides, I've noticed.

This is pretty similar to how all humans work. We all have stories we tell ourselves, narratives that we've chosen (possibly subconsciously). We then find evidence that confirms those narratives.

It's a defining characteristic of how we operate.

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#64

Post by daenz »

stanfordkid wrote: post #58
TheOperator wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Tend to resemble that of the gender that they identify as I hear this claim a lot but I've never actually understood what "resembles" actually means. The brain structures that transgender people have don't match typical male or female brains but how do you determine which brain transgender brains resemble the most? What is the criteria? To me to determine which brain trans brains were more similar to you would have…

Brains are messy things and the argument of the article linked is reductionist (as are most papers which make hand-wavy assertions that one brain is "similar" to another). MRI studies with small sample sizes such as the one linked are almost always underpowered [1] All the study conclusively proves is that both trans women and regular women don't react as viscerally to porn as much as the average man. The actual conn…

>trans women and regular women

Side note observation, "regular women" can be perceived as insensitive to trans women. I'm not sure what the best term to use is either though, when differentiating between trans and non-trans of the same gender. "Biological women"?

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#65

Post by spicyramen »

_hngt wrote: post #19
daenz wrote: post #4

>Prior to this work, the strongest evidence for a link between testosterone exposure and reduced cognitive empathy came in 2011 in a study that found administering testosterone to healthy women reduced their performance on a test of reading emotions. The results suggested the testosterone impaired their performance. That's interesting. Adult males typically have 7-8 times the levels that females do, and females are m…

Trans woman here. Cisgender men and women have different brain structures, and transgender people's brain structures tend to resemble that of the gender that they identify as[1]. So, for example, a trans woman like myself who was born male will have a brain structure that resembles that of a cis woman, not a man. > I know a trans man who, after a few months of testosterone, claimed it was "night and day" in how they…

"I know a person" is a typical response from the noveau pseudo scientific trans movement, no one really understands this condition yet, and hopefully science can figure it out, although science around this topic has been shut down by the "progressive" movement.

https://www.brown.edu/news/2019-03-19/gender

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#66

Post by nailer »

daenz wrote: post #64
stanfordkid wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brains are messy things and the argument of the article linked is reductionist (as are most papers which make hand-wavy assertions that one brain is "similar" to another). MRI studies with small sample sizes such as the one linked are almost always underpowered [1] All the study conclusively proves is that both trans women and regular women don't react as viscerally to porn as much as the average man. The actual conn…

>trans women and regular women Side note observation, "regular women" can be perceived as insensitive to trans women. I'm not sure what the best term to use is either though, when differentiating between trans and non-trans of the same gender. "Biological women"?

'non-trans' works fine and is clearer to most people. 'cisgendered' is also correct, but it has political connotations, eg 'cishet scum'. WikiPedia has some good references: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisgender

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#67

Post by eric_h »

daenz wrote: post #64
stanfordkid wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brains are messy things and the argument of the article linked is reductionist (as are most papers which make hand-wavy assertions that one brain is "similar" to another). MRI studies with small sample sizes such as the one linked are almost always underpowered [1] All the study conclusively proves is that both trans women and regular women don't react as viscerally to porn as much as the average man. The actual conn…

>trans women and regular women Side note observation, "regular women" can be perceived as insensitive to trans women. I'm not sure what the best term to use is either though, when differentiating between trans and non-trans of the same gender. "Biological women"?

The term that is generally accepted is "cis" or "cisgendered"

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#68

Post by tempguy9999 »

daenz wrote: post #64
stanfordkid wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brains are messy things and the argument of the article linked is reductionist (as are most papers which make hand-wavy assertions that one brain is "similar" to another). MRI studies with small sample sizes such as the one linked are almost always underpowered [1] All the study conclusively proves is that both trans women and regular women don't react as viscerally to porn as much as the average man. The actual conn…

>trans women and regular women Side note observation, "regular women" can be perceived as insensitive to trans women. I'm not sure what the best term to use is either though, when differentiating between trans and non-trans of the same gender. "Biological women"?

The distinguishing term is cis (born that way) vs trans (hormones, ops etc). Hence I'm a cis male because I was born as one. Had I become one I'd be a trans male. I think that's right.

> "regular women" can be perceived as insensitive to trans women

I know a few trans (mostly t-women) and insensitivity/nastiness is AFAIK not so tied to gender.

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#69

Post by gliboc »

queercode wrote: post #56
meiraleal wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? So why administering intramuscular testoterone has anabolic/androgen effects?

I don't think this is true. Intramuscular testosterone is the most common method of HRT for trans men / trans masc folks. The effects of which are not "androgen".

FYI

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgyny

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#70

Post by tempguy9999 »

sysbin wrote: post #55
_hngt wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trans woman here. Cisgender men and women have different brain structures, and transgender people's brain structures tend to resemble that of the gender that they identify as[1]. So, for example, a trans woman like myself who was born male will have a brain structure that resembles that of a cis woman, not a man. > I know a trans man who, after a few months of testosterone, claimed it was "night and day" in how they…

That study is worthless based on the small sample size. I'm also a trans woman and I hate when this study is brought up. I think brain development could be a reason but I also think how a person is raised could play into being transgender for some people. Our generation will likely never know for certain. I just don't think there is an all encompassing answer for everyone.

I don't understand the matter of it either. If you badly feel you're in the wrong body and you want it changed, I'm ok with that. I don't see any other reasons are needed.
Post reply on HN