Sex differences in mental rotation: top-down versus bottom-up processing.

Full Abstract

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.

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Author information

Author/s: Butler, Tracy (T); Imperato-McGinley, Julianne (J); Pan, Hong (H); Voyer, Daniel (D); Cordero, Juan (J); Zhu, Yuan-Shan (YS); Stern, Emily (E); Silbersweig, David (D);

Affiliation: Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Box 140, 1300 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021, USA. tab2006(-atsign-)med.cornell.edu

Grants: M01 RR 00047 (Agency:NCRR NIH HHS) ; R01 MH 0646 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: NeuroImage (Neuroimage), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Aug; vol 32 (issue 1) : pp 445-56

Dates: Created 2006/07/24; Completed 2006/09/15; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 16714123, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Brain - anatomy & histology; physiology
Brain Mapping - methods
Female
Functional Laterality
Humans
Male
Mental Processes - physiology

Mental Processes - physiology
Motion Perception
Nerve Net - anatomy & histology; physiology
Reproducibility of Results
Rotation
Sex Characteristics
Space Perception

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