title: Face gender modulates women's brain activity during face encoding.
abstract: Women typically remember more female than male faces, whereas men do not show a reliable own-gender bias. However, little is known about the neural correlates of this own-gender bias in face recognition memory. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated whether face gender modulated brain activity in fusiform and inferior occipital gyri during incidental encoding of faces. Fifteen women and 14 men underwent fMRI while passively viewing female and male faces, followed by a surprise face recognition task. Women recognized more female than male faces and showed higher activity to female than male faces in individually defined regions of fusiform and inferior occipital gyri. In contrast, men's recognition memory and blood-oxygen-level-dependent response were not modulated by face gender. Importantly, higher activity in the left fusiform gyrus (FFG) to one gender was related to better memory performance for that gender. These findings suggest that the FFG is involved in the gender bias in memory for faces, which may be linked to differential experience with female and male faces.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA, and Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden johanna.loven@ki.se.
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lovén
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA, and Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Joakim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Svärd
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA, and Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Natalie C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Ebner
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA, and Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SwedenDepartment of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA, and Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Agneta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Herlitz
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA, and Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SwedenDepartment of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA, and Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Håkan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fischer
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012727:Sex Characteristics
keywords: fMRI; face recognition; fusiform gyrus; own-gender bias; sex differences