| With the in-depth study of human aggression, cognitive emotion, money and decision-making problems in different disciplines, endocrine basis of human behavior gradually lead to many concerns. Thus, the social cognition neuroendocrine has rised on the understructure of integration of physiology and psychology. This dissertation conbined behavioral research and the physiological index detection of androgen, in order to examine hormonal flactuation may have an impact on intertemporal choices about money.Digit ratio (2D:4D) denoting the relative length of the second and fourth digits, is considered to be a biomarker of the prenatal testosterone in a narrow window of early fetus development, including early organization of the brain. This organizational effect of fetal testosterone is believed underlying the relationships between 2D:4D and multiple behavioral traits, such as delay discounting. Recent studies have found that the delay discounting is influenced by the sex steroids, especially testosterone, indicating that circulating hormone levels also have an activational effect to our behaviors.Here we examined both organizational effect and activational effect of testosterone by testing salivary testosterone concentrations and measuring 2D:4D, aiming to investigate the relationship between testosterone and delay discounting rates(AUC). In study one, we found a strong negative correlation between 2D:4D and T2, the testosterone concentrations responding to challenge, which indicates that fetal testosterone has an organizational effect on Tspikes. In study two, regression analysis shows that T1, the resting concentrations of circulating testosterone, is associated with the DD rates(AUC); However, the relationship between 2D:4D and DD rates(AUC) fails to reach significance, neither does the relationship between T2 and DD rates(AUC), indicating that organizational effect of testosterone is more likely to underlie the mechanism by which testosterone affects intertemporal choice. |
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