Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
18340520
TITLE
Relative finger lengths, sex differences, and psychological traits.
ABSTRACT
Various finger length and personality and ability measures were obtained for a sample of Australian adolescent twins (306 boys and 397 girls). A new measure of relative finger length (the length of a given finger relative to the sum of all four fingers) was investigated, and shown to be superior to the traditional 2D:4D for discriminating between the sexes. It also had the advantage of permitting a more analytic approach: for example, the 2nd finger-length contributed much more than the 4th finger length to the sex difference in 2D:4D, and a smooth gradient of sex differences across the hand was evident. Sex differences on right hands were greater than those for left hands. Within-sex correlations were obtained between the various finger-length measures and a personality and an ability scale that showed relatively large sex differences (Eysenck's Psychoticism scale and the spatial subscale from Jackson's Multidimensional Aptitude Battery). The correlations were low, but on the whole consistent with the between-sex differences for the girls. For the boys, this was so for Psychoticism, but spatial ability was, if anything, correlated in the opposite direction.
DATE PUBLISHED
2009 Apr
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
received 2006/08/01
accepted 2007/07/20
revised 2007/04/18
pubmed 2008/03/15 09:00
medline 2009/04/10 09:00
entrez 2008/03/15 09:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Loehlin JC Loehlin John C JC Department of Psychology, University of Texas, 1 University Station A8000, Austin, TX 78712-0187, USA. loehlin@psy.utexas.edu
Medland SE Medland Sarah E SE
Martin NG Martin Nicholas G NG
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 38
ISSUE: 2
TITLE: Archives of sexual behavior
ISOABBREVIATION: Arch Sex Behav
YEAR: 2009
MONTH: Apr
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Internet
ISSN: 1573-2800
ISSNTYPE: Electronic
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Arch Sex Behav
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 0004-0002
NLMUNIQUEID: 1273516
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
CA88363 NCI NIH HHS United States
DC 00153 NIDCD NIH HHS United States
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior
Child
Female
Fingers anatomy & histology
Humans anatomy & histology
Male anatomy & histology
Neuropsychological Tests anatomy & histology
Personality anatomy & histology
Sex Characteristics anatomy & histology
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's