Researchers at the University of Cambridge examined whether differences in behavior between males and females originate at birth or develop through social and cultural influences. The study involved 130 newborns aged eight hours to three days old who watched side-by-side videos displaying a woman’s face and a Newton’s cradle toy while eye-tracking technology recorded their visual focus.
Results indicated that both sexes demonstrated heightened interest in the face compared to the mechanical toy. However, girls showed a stronger preference for the face relative to the toy than boys displayed. The findings were published in the journal Biology of Sex Differences. Since the infants were only days old, environmental and cultural factors were unlikely to account for the observed differences, pointing instead to biological mechanisms such as genetic factors or prenatal hormone exposure.
Yumnah Khan, a doctoral researcher at the Autism Research Centre, noted that the findings demonstrate some sex-based differences emerge early in development. The results revealed average group-level distinctions rather than universal traits applying to all individuals within each sex, with substantial variation and overlap between boys and girls observed throughout the study.
Scientists hypothesized that early-emerging differences in social attention may facilitate the development of language and social skills, potentially explaining documented trends showing girls typically acquire speech and certain social competencies earlier than boys. The research team is investigating whether subtle differences present at birth correlate with varying vulnerability to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, such as the higher prevalence of autism and ADHD in males and anxiety and depression in females.
Previous research has identified comparable sex-based differences in brain structure at birth, attributed to hormonal variations during fetal development. Male fetuses experience testosterone exposure at approximately double the levels encountered by females during early pregnancy trimesters.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI