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Testosterone levels and spatial ability in men
Abstract
Testosterone (T) levels were measured by salivary assays in 59 males at times of the day when T was expected to be highest and lowest. Relationships were evaluated for mean hormone levels across the two sessions and hormone level changes between sessions with performance on three-dimensional mental rotations, a spatial test which customarily favours males. An anagrams task and the digit symbol test were used as controls. Mental rotations scores showed a significant positive relationship with mean T levels but not with changes in T. There were no significant relationships between control test scores and mean T levels. Findings are discussed in terms of their contributions to the resolution of ambiguities in prior reported data.
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“Testosterone levels have been linked to spatial performance in both genders (e.g., Burkitt et al., 2007;Silverman et al., 1999;Yang et al., 2007)”
From Factors Related to Mean Score Group Differences on Cognitive Ability Tests: A Systematic Review (2025) · cites this paper as Silverman et al., 1999
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“79,80 Despite inconsistencies, however, past research indicates that testosterone levels in males correlate with improved mental rotation ability, 81–83 route-learning, 84 and performance on a block design task.”
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Barel, E., & Tzischinsky, O. (2017) · Journal of Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1080/20445911.2017.1279166 · Cited by 10
“This finding supports previous evidence regarding the relationship between T and mental rotation (Christiansen, 1993; Silverman et al., 1999), but contradicts evidence from other studies (Halari et al., 2005; Janowsky et al., 1998), although the procedures used in these studies were similar to ours…”
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Borniger, J. C., Chaudhry, A., & Muehlenbein, M. (2013) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0057637 · Cited by 11
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Wobber, V., & Herrmann, E. (2015) · doi:10.1163/1568539x-00003202 · Cited by 10
“These findings indicate that in a number of areas where testosterone has been implicated in human and rodent cognition including spatial cognition (Williams & Meck, 1991; Silverman et al., 1999; Hooven et al., 2004; Leonard & Winsauer, 2011), chimpanzees also show a significant role of testosterone level in accounting…”
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“Several studies have found a significant positive relationship between actually measured testosterone levels and spatial ability scores (Silverman et al. 1999; Moffat et al. 2002; Hooven et al. 2004; Driscoll et al. 2005).”
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“Despite some inconsistencies [5,6], past research indicates that testosterone levels in human males correlate with improved ability on a variety of hippocampus-dependent cognitive tasks [7–10].”
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“Some evidences suggest a positive correlation between testosterone and spatial ability [6] [16] [34].”
BackgroundFactors Affecting Adult Mental Rotation Performance
Nazareth, A. (2015) · doi:10.25148/etd.fidc000115 · Cited by 4
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“The relationship between testosterone and cognitive abilities is negative in men and positive in women (Gouchie & Kimura, 1991; Grimshaw et al., 1995a; Grimshaw et al., 1995b; Kimura & Hampson, 1994; O’Connor et al., 2001; Silverman et al., 1999).”
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InfluentialHeiken, K. H. (2013) · doi:10.15368/theses.2013.188 · Cited by 2
Noachtar, I., & Pletzer, B. (2025) · Hormones and Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2025.105790 · Cited by 1
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Drążkowski, D., Piątkowski, K., Szwedo, J., & Jadwiżyc, M. (2017) · Edukacja · doi:10.24131/3724.170105 · Cited by 2
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Karádi, K. (2004) · Perceptual and Motor Skills · doi:10.2466/pms.99.3.945-946
Metadata
- Authors
- Silverman, I., Kastuk, D., Choi, J., & Phillips, K.
- Affiliations
- York University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Silverman, Irwin
- Venue
- Psychoneuroendocrinology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1999-11
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 813-822
- ISSN
- 0306-4530 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2132952248
- Cited by
- 159
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 14.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychoneuroendocrinology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Spatial Cognition and Navigation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Sexual Differentiation and Disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Hormonal and reproductive studies
- Keywords
- testosterone, spatial ability, mental rotation, salivary hormone levels, sex differences, diurnal variation, men, anagrams, digit symbol test
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aptitude, Circadian Rhythm, Depth Perception, Female, Humans, Male, Orientation, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Problem Solving, Saliva, Sex Characteristics, Space Perception, Testosterone
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