ÚLOHA TESTOSTERÓNU V MODULOVANÍ KOGNITÍVNYCH FUNKCIÍ A ETIOLÓGII NADPRIEMERNÉHO INTELEKTOVÉHO NADANIA.

The intensive research in the last years brought a lot of interesting evidence concerning the variety of effects of testosterone. The view on testosterone was thus substantially broadened. Except of generally known effects on morphology and sexual characteristics, its influence on cognitive characteristics, behavior, and intellect in both the prenatal and postnatal period gets to the foreground. The role of steroid hormones was unambiguously proved in many processes essential for the brain architecture and its functioning. The paper brings the overview of selected findings about testosterone organizing the brain in the prenatal period and activating its functioning in the postnatal period. The influence of testosterone is followed in the relation to diverse psychological, behavioral, and social characteristics. The overview focuses especially on summing up the knowledge about the influence of testosterone and its metabolism on selected cognitive characteristics (namely spatial and verbal abilities, systemization, empathy). It presents testosterone also as a possible etiological factor of intellect endowment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]