A study of children with an unusual hereditary condition called Turner's syndrome suggests that maybe a girl's heart really does belong to daddy.
Scientists have found preliminary evidence of a gene or genes on the X chromosome that could, by the most speculative of interpretations, account for some of the greater social skills seen in girls compared with boys, and, by extension, for boys' higher rate of behavioral and learning disorders.
In a study being published today in the journal Nature, Dr. David H. Skuse of the Institute of Child Health in London and his colleagues found significant differences in social behavior between two groups of girls with Turner's, which results in a child's inheriting only a single X chromosome, rather than the matched X chromosomes girls normally have.
The researchers determined that if a Turner girl inherited her lone X chromosome from her father, she displayed far greater social skills than if her one X chromosome came from her mother.
Girls normally get one X chromosome from each parent, and boys an X chromosome from their mother and a Y chromosome from their father.
Turner girls with the paternal X chromosome had an easier time making and keeping friends, were more aware of others' feelings, got along better with teachers and families and generally seemed happier, than those whose X chromosomes were of maternal provenance, said Skuse.
Among the school-age girls in the study, 40 percent of those with a maternal X chromosome had been given statements from teachers indicating trouble at school, compared with 16 percent of those with a paternal X chromosome. ``We've gotten to the point where we can make a pretty good guess of where a girl's chromosome came from just by knowing about her social behavior,'' Skuse said.
By other measures, including IQ and general appearance, the two groups of Turner girls are indistinguishable.