The relationship between serum testosterone level and visuomotor learning in right-handed young men

Abstract

The relationship between serum testosterone level and visuomotor learning of hand skill was studied in right-handed young men. Hand skill was assessed by a peg moving task. Peg moving times for the right and left hands linearly decreased at each successive trial (visuomotor learning). The peg moving times for the right and left hands were found to be negatively linearly related to scrum testosterone levels: there was a direct relationship between hand skill and testosterone, which was more prominent for the right than the left hand. The slopes of the learning curves for the right hand were found to be equal in subjects with low, normal, and high testosterone. The intercepts of these curves exhibited a shift toward a better hand skill from low- to high-testosterone subjects. The visuomotor learning for the left hand was found to be better in subjects with normal and high testosterone than those with low testosterone. It was concluded that testosterone would favor the visuomotor development especially of the left cerebral hemisphere, probably at puberty; the motor learning of this hemisphere does not seem to be associated with testosterone. Testosterone seems to be advantageous for the visuomotor performance as well as for the motor learning of the right cerebral hemisphere.

Key Words:

• Testosterone
• hand skill
• motor learning
• brain lateralization