Pointing to others: How the target gender influences pointing performance.
Pointing is a communicative gesture that allows individuals to share information about surrounding objects with other humans. Patients with heterotopagnosia are specifically impaired in pointing to other humans' body parts but not in pointing to themselves or to objects. Here, we describe a female patient with heterotopagnosia who was more accurate in pointing to men's body parts than to women's body parts. We replicated this gender effect in healthy participants with faster reaction times for pointing to men's body parts than to women's body parts. We discuss the role of gender stereotypes in explaining why it is more difficult to point to women than to men.
a INSERM U955 Equipe E01, Neuropsychologie Interventionnelle , Créteil , France.|b Faculté de Médecine , Université Paris Est , Créteil , France.|c Département d'Etudes Cognitives , Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University , Paris , France.|d AP-HP, Centre de Référence Maladie de Huntington, Service de Neurologie , Hôpital Henri Mondor , Créteil , France.
Laurent
L
Cleret de Langavant
a INSERM U955 Equipe E01, Neuropsychologie Interventionnelle , Créteil , France.|b Faculté de Médecine , Université Paris Est , Créteil , France.|c Département d'Etudes Cognitives , Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University , Paris , France.
Charlotte
C
Jacquemot
a INSERM U955 Equipe E01, Neuropsychologie Interventionnelle , Créteil , France.|b Faculté de Médecine , Université Paris Est , Créteil , France.
Virginie
V
Cruveiller
c Département d'Etudes Cognitives , Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University , Paris , France.|e Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique , CNRS-EHESS-ENS , Paris , France.
Emmanuel
E
Dupoux
a INSERM U955 Equipe E01, Neuropsychologie Interventionnelle , Créteil , France.|b Faculté de Médecine , Université Paris Est , Créteil , France.|c Département d'Etudes Cognitives , Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University , Paris , France.|d AP-HP, Centre de Référence Maladie de Huntington, Service de Neurologie , Hôpital Henri Mondor , Créteil , France.
Anne-Catherine
AC
Bachoud-Lévi
D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018888:Aphasia, Primary Progressive / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D012723:Sex; D012737:Sex Factors
Gender; heterotopagnosia; pointing; social interaction; stereotype