title: Does egocentric mental rotation elicit sex differences?
abstract: Mental rotation tests traditionally show a male performance advantage. Some neuroimaging studies have reported sex-specific cortical activation patterns during mental rotation. However, these experiments used abstract stimuli and some studies did not systematically exclude performance as a confounding variable. The mental rotation of hands and hand-related objects, compared to abstract objects, is known to evoke an egocentric motor strategy. In this study, we used fMRI to explore potential gender-specific cortical activation patterns for the mental rotation of hands and tools in a sample with an adequate and equal performance for men and women. We found a common neural substrate for men and women comprising superior parietal lobe, dorsolateral premotor cortex, and extrastriate occipital areas, compatible with an egocentric motor strategy for the mental rotation of hands and tools. Sex differences were modest and limited to the mental rotation of hands. Women recruited more left ventral premotor cortex, which could imply that women rely more on imitation or use more perceptual comparisons. Men, on the other hand, drafted more the lingual gyrus, possibly referring to more extensive semantic or early visual processing. We conclude that men and women use a very similar motor strategy during egocentric mental rotation with a potential gender-specific accent.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Neuropsychology, Department of Internal Medicine-Section Neurology, Ghent University, Belgium. ruth.seurinck@ugent.be
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Seurinck
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vingerhoets
authors.forename: F P
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: de Lange
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Achten
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003867:Depth Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012727:Sex Characteristics