Congenital adrenal hyperplasia and cerebral lateralizations

Handedness, immunologic disorders, language lateralization, reading fluency, and visual-motor achievements were assessed in 25 patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia and age-matched right- and left-handed normal controls. An increased rate of left-handedness in the congenital adrenal hyperplasia group was evident. The prevalence of immunologic disorders, dichotic listening patterns, and visual-motor/reading achievement ratio were more similar to left-handed and significantly different from right-handed controls. Females appeared to be more affected than males in some of the functions. These results partly support the hypothesis of intrauterine androgenic effects on hemispheric function, but not to the extent of a complete lateralization shift.