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

TitleSex differences in mental rotation: top-down versus bottom-up processing.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2006
AuthorsButler T, Imperato-McGinley J, Pan H, Voyer D, Cordero J, Zhu Y-S, Stern E, Silbersweig D
JournalNeuroimage
Volume32
Issue1
Pagination445-56
Date Published2006 Aug 01
ISSN1053-8119
KeywordsBrain, Brain Mapping, Female, Functional Laterality, Humans, Male, Mental Processes, Motion Perception, Nerve Net, Reproducibility of Results, Rotation, Sex Characteristics, Space Perception
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.

DOI10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.03.030
Alternate JournalNeuroimage
PubMed ID16714123
Grant ListM01 RR 00047 / RR / NCRR NIH HHS / United States
R01 MH 0646 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
Related Institute: 
Brain Health Imaging Institute (BHII)

Weill Cornell Medicine
Department of Radiology
525 East 68th Street New York, NY 10065