Sex differences in mental rotation: top-down versus bottom-up processing.
Functional MRI during performance of a validated mental rotation task was used to assess a neurobiological basis for sex differences in visuospatial processing. Between-sex group analysis demonstrated greater activity in women than in men in dorsalmedial prefrontal and other high-order heteromodal association cortices, suggesting women performed mental rotation in an effortful, "top-down" fashion. In contrast, men activated primary sensory cortices as well as regions involved in implicit learning (basal ganglia) and mental imagery (precuneus), consistent with a more automatic, "bottom-up" strategy. Functional connectivity analysis in association with a measure of behavioral performance showed that, in men (but not women), accurate performance was associated with deactivation of parieto-insular vestibular cortex (PIVC) as part of a visual-vestibular network. Automatic evocation by men to a greater extent than women of this network during mental rotation may represent an effective, unconscious, bottom-up neural strategy which could reasonably account for men's traditional visuospatial performance advantage.
Butler
Tracy
T
Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Box 140, 1300 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021, USA. tab2006@med.cornell.edu
Imperato-McGinley
Julianne
J
Pan
Hong
H
Voyer
Daniel
D
Cordero
Juan
J
Zhu
Yuan-Shan
YS
Stern
Emily
E
Silbersweig
David
D
D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D009039:Motion Perception; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012399:Rotation; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013028:Space Perception