Human Reproduction, Vol. 4, No. 7, pp. 794-797, 1989© 1989 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
other
Paternal age and mental functions of progeny in man Maurice R. Auroux1, Marie J. Mayaux2, Marie L. Guihard-Moscato2, Maurice Fromantin3, Jean Barthe3 and Daniel Schwartz2
2INSERM U 292, Santé Publique. Epidémiologie, Reproduction Humaine, CHU Bicêtre 94271 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre 3Ministère de la Défense, Inspection Technique des Services Médicaux de 1‘Hygiène et de I’Epidémiologie dans les Armées, Hôpital du Val de Grace 75230 Paris, France Biologie de la Reproduction et du Développement, CHU Bicêtre 94271 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre
Correspondence: 1To whom correspondence should be addressed
The effects of maternal age on the quality of offspring are well known. Those due to the father's age are less obvious, apart from the role of increasing paternal age in the onset of many dominant autosomal disorders. But an experimental model has demonstrated that, in rats, increasing paternal age, without any other anomalies, might produce a decreased learning capacity in progeny. The object of the epidemiological investigation presented here was to verify whether this effect might also occur in man. The study involved the distribution of scores obtained in psychometric tests by 18-year-old male subjects, according to their father’s age at the time of their birth. This distribution indicated not only that increasing paternal age is accompanied by effects similar to those observed in animals, but also that very young paternal age was also related to these effects. Thus, the curve of such scores produced an inverted U-shape, with maximum scores obtained when the father was about thirty years of age. Maternal age did not appear to play a part in this event. These results pose the problem of identifying genetic and/or psychosocial factors which might have an impact on the quality of the conceptus.
Key words: paternal age/spermatogenesis/mental functions in adult male progeny/epidemiological study in man