Factors related to sex differences in navigating a computerized maze

Looking behind the score: Skill structure explains sex differences in skilled video game performance

“…Studies have found that women were more likely than men to use a less efficient piecewise or analytic strategy rather than a holistic or rotational strategy on mental rotation tasks [ 20 – 22 ], and that sex differences in performance can be significantly reduced through training and manipulations of the instructions or task [ 17 , 23 ]. Similar differences in selected strategies have been found in examinations of men and women’s navigation of virtual environments [ 24 , 25 ]. This pattern of results have led some researchers to suggest the differences in selected strategies may arise from women’s tendency to process spatial information locally, whereas men tend to process spatial features globally or holistically [ 22 , 26 ]; thus, differences in how men and women allocate spatial attention while performing tasks may bias their selection among available strategies.…”

“…For example, strategy use has been mostly inferred indirectly through analyses of overall task performance measures like accuracy and reaction time, aggregated across entire groups [ 20 – 23 ]. Other studies have relied on post-hoc measures of strategy like behavior on a critical trial in the task [ 24 ] or post-task self-reports of strategy use [ 25 ], and these two approaches are insensitive to changes in behavior participants may employ over the course of many trials. These strategy evaluations also fail to relate task performance to specific behaviors, making it difficult to determine what behavioral differences distinguish high and low performance within and across groups using different strategies.…”

Prenatal alcohol exposure affects brain function during place learning in a virtual environment differently in boys and girls

“…Despite the absence of sex differences in performance, our finding that no regions showed greater activation increases during invisible‐target conditions in girls than in boys, compared to greater increases in activity during invisible conditions in parietal, frontal, and occipital regions in boys, provides further evidence that males and females use different navigational strategies (Liu, Levy, Barton, & Iaria, ; Rodgers, Sindone, & Moffat, ; Sandstrom, Kaufman, & Huettel, ) and activate different brain regions (Sneider, et al, ) during place learning. Females tend to navigate egocentrically, using mainly landmark‐based cues, whereas males tend to navigate allocentrically, using mainly Euclidean information, such as direction, distance, gradient (slope of the floor), and geometry (Andersen, Dahmani, Konishi, & Bohbot, ; Astur, et al, ; Coluccia & Louse, ; Grön, et al, ; Moffat, Hampson, & Hatzipantelis, ; Nowak, Murali, & Driscoll, ; Sandstrom, et al, ; Saucier, et al, ; Woolley, et al, ).…”

“…Despite the absence of sex differences in performance, our finding that no regions showed greater activation increases during in- & Huettel, 1998) and activate different brain regions (Sneider, et al, 2011) during place learning. Females tend to navigate egocentrically, using mainly landmark-based cues, whereas males tend to navigate allocentrically, using mainly Euclidean information, such as direction, distance, gradient (slope of the floor), and geometry (Andersen, Dahmani, Konishi, & Bohbot, 2012;Astur, et al, 1998;Coluccia & Louse, 2004;Grön, et al, 2000;Moffat, Hampson, & Hatzipantelis, 1998;Nowak, Murali, & Driscoll, 2015;Sandstrom, et al, 1998;Saucier, et al, 2002;Woolley, et al, 2010).…”

“…Notably, the right parahippocampal gyrus, where PAE was related to reduced activation, has been shown to mediate allocentric navigational strategies Janzen & Weststeijn, 2007;Jordan, Schadow, Wuestenberg, Heinze, & Jäncke, 2004;Maguire, et al, 1998Maguire, et al, , 1999McNaughton, et al, 1991;Nowak, et al, 2015;Parslow, et al, 2004), which tend to be employed more by males than by females (Nowak, et al, 2015;Sandstrom, et al, 1998;Saucier, et al, 2002). A number of other regions showing PAE effects in boys, including the precuneus (Frings, et al, 2006), posterior cingulate (Aggleton, Vann, Oswald, & Good, 2000;McNaughton, et al, 1991), caudate (Moffat, Kennedy, Rodrigue, & Raz, 2007), precentral gyrus (Rodriguez, 2010), and thalamus (Jordan, et al, 2004), are also associated with allocentric spatial memory.…”