In late January, I noted comments popping up around the web regarding a study that had just come out…
“Positive Screening on the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) in Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborns” by Karl C. K. Kuban, MD, SM, Epi, T. Michael O’Shea, MD, MPH, Elizabeth N. Alfred, MS, Helen Tager-Flusberg, PhD, Donald J. Goldstein, PhD, Alan Leviton, M, DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2008.10.011.
…that concluded that very premature infants showed increased likelihood for becoming autistic. If maturation rates are set by a mother’s testosterone levels around six weeks before birth, and a child emerges before that crucial ontological epigenetic day, then it seems to me that the child will likely emerge with radical maturation rate repercussions.
I would want to know what other conditions besides autism those children might exhibit, and what diseases they are likely to contract. Do some of the children emerge maturational accelerated? Are there cerebral lateralization repercussions? Using Annett’s peg tests, do the children born that premature show signs of both extreme left-handedness and extreme right-handedness?
If, indeed, these children tend to polarize, does it seem like they do so randomly or are there perhaps other factors that emerge, influencing their rates of maturation when the primary trigger is absent?
Then there are the issues that revolve around estrogen. There have not been studies conducted to determine if estrogen levels are also established by a mother’s uterine estrogen levels. If so, do extremely premature infants exhibit estrogen-related maladies such as breast cancer in higher proportion? Hypothesizing personality markers for extremely high and low estrogen in males and females, what might be the evidence that these extremely premature individuals are experiencing the estrogen equivalent of testosterone influencing maturational delay and acceleration?
It seems to me that detailed studies exploring the diseases, conditions, personalities, handedness propensities, cerebral lateralization, talents and skills of people born very premature might shed light on the influence of testosterone and estrogen, using an epigenetic model.
It would also be interesting to see if these features carry forward to future generations.
