M. Hassler & E. Nieschlag

Salivary testosterone and creative musical behavior in adolescent males and females: bibliographical excerpts

"Studies indicated that musicians differ from nonmusicians in functional hemispheric lateralization (Gordon, 1983; Hassler & Birbaumer, 1988; Witelson, 1980) in that musicians are less left-lateralized than nonmusicians for language functions." (Hassler & Birbaumer, 1988) at each stage of the study." (Hassler, M & Nieschlag, E. (1991) Salivary testosterone and creative musical behavior in adolescent males and females. Developmental Neuropsychology 7: 518)

"It seems possible that an optimal testosterone range exists for the expression of creative musical behavior and that exceeding this optimal range in the course of puberty may contribute to a stop of musical production in boys. Such optimal testosterone levels may be lower than male average in adult men and higher than female average in adult women (Hassler, 1991; Hassler & Nieschlag, 1989). ... Handedness proved to be an important variable with respect to musical talent in boys. Male left-handers attained significantly higher mean test scores than male right-handers on Wing's Standardized Tests of Musical Intelligence (Hassler & Birbaumer, 1988) at each stage of the study." (Hassler, M & Nieschlag, E. (1991) Salivary testosterone and creative musical behavior in adolescent males and females. Developmental Neuropsychology 7: 504)