Geniuses are more frequently male

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 Because it is an obviously annoying finding for many people, the higher incidence of male genius has had to be studied on a very large scale to achieve any credibility.  Indeed,  it is a rather surprising finding in light of what we saw in the previous section.   Also, a greater incidence of genius in either sex, located only at the top end of the distribution, defies any obvious neurobiological explanation.   Depending on where IQ cut-offs are set (definitions of genius),  the higher prevalence of male genius varies between 2:1 and 12:1.  As the criterion is set higher, male prevalence increases.  This trait seems to be particularly manifest when measured in terms of mathematical reasoning ability.  In other words, ultra-geniuses belong to a select club ... practically males only.  One researcher,  Camilla Benbow,  certainly the one who has carried out the most extensive research on this topic,  believes that biological factors are at play.  She,  and others have found that the incidence of non right handers (left handers and ambidextrals) is much higher among cohorts of geniuses.  In fact,  it is twice as frequent than in the general population.  I explain in the next section why some researchers,  including Benbow,  believe the reason for male prevalence of genius is prenatal modulation by one particular sex steroid,  namely testosterone.

If testosterone is indeed a significant mediator of male genius,  then it would be plausible to expect that outstanding maze-learning ought to show the same steeply increasing male-prevalence gradient in rats and in primates.  Unfortunately,  I was not able to find relevant information to this effect in the scientific literature.   I was only able to verify that the male rat is superior to the female in maze learning whether both sexes are hereditary geniuses or hereditary dunces.   An enterprising analyst could make a significant contribution to science by so re-analyzing the raw data from the large-scale early breeding studies on heritability of intellect in rats.  For example a series of studies known as the Tyron studies has led to strains of rats called Tyron-genius and Tyron-dunce,  which are presently commercially available for ongoing research.