Transgender Boys: How Testosterone Impacts Teenagers’ Social Development
In the journey from childhood to adulthood, teenagers undergo significant social shifts, gravitating away from family towards peer groups. A recent study published in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience provides fascinating insights into how testosterone may influence this shift, particularly in transgender boys, some of whom are undergoing hormone therapy as part of their gender-affirming care.
Understanding Testosterone’s Role in Social Behavior
Testosterone, known for its role in the development of secondary sexual characteristics, also has profound effects beyond physical changes, including influencing social behavior and emotional processing. Adolescence is marked by a shift where teenagers gradually spend less time with their caregivers and increasingly seek the company and approval of their peers, enabling them to form stable social networks outside the family unit.
Study Focuses on the Impact of Testosterone in Transgender Boys
To explore how testosterone specifically affects neural responses to socio-affective stimuli from peers and caregivers, researchers embarked on a study focusing on transgender boys undergoing gender-affirming hormone treatment. They aimed to provide a unique lens into the social re-orientation process during adolescence for both cisgender and transgender youth.
Study Design and Participants
A multidisciplinary gender development clinic in the Midwest of the United States recruited 44 transgender boys for the study. Participants were divided into two groups based on their treatment status: 19 boys receiving gender-affirming hormones (GAH+) – specifically exogenous testosterone, and 25 boys not receiving any exogenous hormones (GAH-). The inclusion criteria ensured participants did not have a history of puberty-blocking medication, which could have influenced the study’s outcomes.
Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to Assess Social Cues
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to evaluate how testosterone impacts the processing of emotional cues. During the study sessions, participants were exposed to auditory stimuli consisting of recordings of emotional voices, both from their caregivers and an unknown teenager. An additional non-emotional sound (a bicycle bell) was introduced to maintain participants’ attention without significantly affecting their emotional processing.
Testosterone’s Influence on Neural Activation Patterns
Analysis of the data did not reveal an overall effect of gender-affirming hormone therapy on neural activation patterns across the board. However, a comprehensive examination exposed a significant three-way interaction involving the GAH group, emotion type, and speaker type in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) – a brain region involved in emotional processing and decision-making.
Distinct Neural Responses to Emotional Cues
For the GAH+ group – transgender boys receiving testosterone therapy – there was a reduced response in the ACC to angry voices from their caregivers compared to angry voices from an unfamiliar teenager. This finding suggests that testosterone may diminish the emotional impact of negative cues from close family members while amplifying the response to similar cues from peers.
Conversely, the GAH- group – not receiving testosterone therapy – displayed an opposite pattern. They exhibited a greater neural response to the teenager’s happy voice over their caregiver’s happy voice, indicating a heightened sensitivity to positive social signals from peers in the absence of testosterone.
Differential Impact of Testosterone on Emotional Cues
These findings emphasize the varying influence of testosterone on the brain’s processing of emotional cues, depending on the source of those cues. For transgender boys receiving testosterone, the hormone appears to recalibrate the neural valuation of emotional signals, reducing the impact of negative familial cues while heightening sensitivity to peer emotions. This shift aligns with the broader social reorientation process occurring during adolescence, where peer relationships gain increasing importance over familial bonds.
Linking Neural Response Patterns with Social Behavior
The study explored the association between neural response patterns and social behavior, as reflected in participants’ self-reported closeness to peers over caregivers. The data revealed that neural processing of emotional cues from different sources linked closely to the adolescent’s social network and emotional priorities, with testosterone playing a role in this reorientation process.
Preliminary Findings with Future Implications
The study acknowledges the need for further longitudinal work with larger samples to fully understand how changes in testosterone contribute to social reorientation and increasing independence from the family environment during adolescence. The initial results, while preliminary, shed light on the modifications in the processing of social cues occurring in the adolescent brain.
The article, titled “Exogenous Testosterone Administration Is Associated with Differential Neural Response to Unfamiliar Peer’s and Own Caregiver’s Voice in Transgender Adolescents,” presents valuable insights into the impact of testosterone on social development in transgender boys. By understanding the intricate relationship between hormone therapy and the brain’s response to emotional cues, this study contributes to optimizing care and support for transgender youth.
