AUTOMATIZATION COGNITIVE STYLE ANDROGENS AND MONOAMINE OXIDASE

Automatized behaviors are behaviors which have been so highly practiced that minimums of mental and physical effort are required for their successful efficient execution. The Automatization Cognitive Style, defined as greater or lesser ability to perform simple repetitive tasks than expected from the person''s general level of ability on a heterogeneous battery of tasks, has been previously found related to physical development in males in a manner which suggested that Strong Auto-matizers (subjects with greater response strength on simple tasks than expected from their general level of ability) were more andro-genized than Weak Automatizers. The present study hypothesized that an index of the Automatization Cognitive Style would be postiively related to clinical assessments of androgen levels, i.e., 24 hr urinary 17-ketosteroid excretions and pubic hair development in normal adult males. Castration and injections of androgens have recently been reported to affect brain monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity levels in rats. MAO is believed to be the principal inactivator of brain norepinephrine. Norepinephrine is known to be related to wakefulness, activity, etc., aspects of behavior which seem related to automatization ability. Hence, peripheral plasma estimates of MAO activity were obtained with the hope that they might reflect central nervous system levels of MAO activity. One hundred and fifteen normal young adult subjects were employed in 2 studies. The results support the hypotheses, i.e., the index of the automatization cognitive style was positively related to both the 24 hr urinary 17-ketosteroid excretions and pubic hair development The index of the automatization cognitive style as well as the 24 hr. urinary 17-ketosteroid excretions and pubic hair assessments were also negatively related to the plasma MAO activity levels. An in vitro experiment indicated that testosterone directly inhibits MAO activity. Therefore, the overall results of the study suggest that androgens inhibit brain MAO activity which, in turn, results in an elevation of brain norepinephrine levels. Increased levels of brain norepinephrine are then thought to induce a heightened state of behavioral reactivity thus facilitating the automatization of behaviors.