Hormonal changes, stable attention: Gender-affirming hormone treatment does not alter selective attention to infant cues in transgender individuals

Testosterone is known to modulate parental caretaking and responses to infant cues. Recent evidence suggests a negative association between testosterone and selective attention towards baby schema. Transgender people undergoing gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) experience substantial changes in testosterone levels and they often have or want to have children, highlighting the need to determine whether GAHT changes responsivity to infant cues. In the present pre-registered study, we analyzed whether transgender participants undergoing GAHT exhibit a change in selective attention toward baby schema in a controlled trial ( N = 98; mean age = 28.57 years). To this end, we used a computer-based target detection paradigm consisting of infant and adult human images that has been used to demonstrate baby schema effects in relation to testosterone levels. Our results indicate that six months of GAHT had no observable effect on selective attention toward baby schema in our transgender participants. The association between selective attention toward baby schema and testosterone, which has so far only been demonstrated based on endogenous hormone levels, does not appear to be transferable to transgender people, who alter their testosterone levels through GAHT. Our findings extend previous findings by providing insights on previously unexplored effects of GAHT on the attentional system. • We investigated the effects of gender-affirming hormone therapy on selective attention to the baby schema in transgender individuals • Contrary to our preregistered hypotheses, no effects of altered testosterone levels on selective attention to the baby schema were found • This study took an innovative approach to basic research on testosterone by using a within-subject design with transgender participants whose hormone levels were drastically modulated • Our findings contribute to understanding how long-term hormone therapy may affect attentional processes