title: Sex-related ERP differences in deviance detection.
abstract: The effect of sex on neural mechanisms of auditory mismatch detection was examined using dense sensor array (128 channel) event-related potential recordings (ERPs). ERPs of 32 right-handed subjects (16 males) were recorded to frequent (85%, 880 Hz) and infrequent (15%, 1480 Hz) tones. There were no sex differences in mismatch negativity (80-180 ms), however, the fronto-central P2 (180-260 ms) was less positive in males (F=12.56, P<0.005) and the N2 (260-340 ms) was more negative in males (F=6.28, P<0.05). The increased negativity in males spanning the P2 and N2 may index a top-down process of attention bias towards novelty. This result supports the hypothesis of an adaptive, sexually dimorphic processing of novel events in humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX, USA. e.nagy@dundee.ac.uk
authors.forename: Emese
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nagy
authors.forename: Geoffrey F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Potts
authors.forename: Katherine A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Loveland
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D012727:Sex Characteristics