Sex differences in associations between spatial ability and corpus callosum morphology

Kurth, Florian; Spencer, Debra; Hines, Melissa; Lüders, Eileen

doi:10.1002/jnr.24260

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…For example, several studies have shown more strongly lateralized functions in males versus females, including language and visuospatial processes. In particular, females would rely more on interhemispheric communication during tasks involving 3D mental rotation (Kurth et al., 2018), and would show a more bilateral activation of brain areas devoted to linguistic functions (Hausmann, 2016; Kansaku & Kitazawa, 2001; Shaywitz et al, 1995). Bourne (2005) investigated the existence of hemispheric asymmetries during face processing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex differences in the social brain and in social cognition

Proverbio

2021

J of Neuroscience Research

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Many studies have reported sex differences in empathy and social skills. In this review, several lines of empirical evidences about sex differences in functions and anatomy of social brain are discussed. The most relevant differences involve face processing, facial expression recognition, response to baby schema, the ability to see faces in things, the processing of social interactions, the response to the others' pain, interest in social information, processing of gestures and actions, biological motion, erotic, and affective stimuli. Sex differences in oxytocin-based parental response are also reported. In conclusion, the female and male brains show several neuro-functional differences in various aspects of social cognition, and especially in emotional coding, face processing, and response to baby schema. An interpretation of this sexual dimorphism is provided in the view of evolutionary psychobiology. Keywords baby schema | empathy | facial expression | gender | sex differences SignificanceThis review is particularly relevant because it focuses on an extensive neuroimaging and electrophysiological literature on functional and anatomical sex differences in social cognition, thus revealing new and hitherto unknown knowledge. 1INTRODUCTIONGenetic and hormonal influences are long known to affect the human brain and determine a variety of anatomical and functional differences between the two sexes. These sex differences would concern: overall brain volume (Zaidi, 2010), neuronal density and white matter thickness (Luders & Toga, 2010), microstructure of the thalamus, corpus callosum, and cingulum (Menzler et al., 2011), structure/size of anterior hypothalamus, of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, of the posterodorsal region of the medial amygdala, and of the preoptic area (see Cahill, 2006;

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex differences in the social brain and in social cognition

Proverbio

2021

J of Neuroscience Research

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“…4 ). However, it should be pointed out that the presence of sex differences in the CC is a long-debated issue (Ardekani et al 2013 ; Luders et al 2014 ; Allen et al 1991 ; Prendergast et al 2015 ; Kurth et al 2018 ; Vannucci et al 2017 ; Lee et al 2009 ). In addition, it should be considered that the callosal connections probably have both excitatory and inhibitory functions (Bloom and Hynd 2005 ), so it is not possible to identify a clear relationship between the CC structure and homotopic co-activations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex differences in brain homotopic co-activations: a meta-analytic study

et al. 2022

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An element of great interest in functional connectivity is ‘homotopic connectivity’ (HC), namely the connectivity between two mirrored areas of the two hemispheres, mainly mediated by the fibers of the corpus callosum. Despite a long tradition of studying sexual dimorphism in the human brain, to our knowledge only one study has addressed the influence of sex on HC.We investigated the issue of homotopic co-activations in women and men using a coordinate-based meta-analytic method and data from the BrainMap database. A first unexpected observation was that the database was affected by a sex bias: women-only groups are investigated less often than men-only ones, and they are more often studied in certain domains such as emotion compared to men, and less in cognition. Implementing a series of sampling procedures to equalize the size and proportion of the datasets, our results indicated that females exhibit stronger interhemispheric co-activation than males, suggesting that the female brain is less lateralized and more integrated than that of males. In addition, males appear to show less intense but more extensive co-activation than females. Some local differences also appeared. In particular, it appears that primary motor and perceptual areas are more co-activated in males, in contrast to the opposite trend in the rest of the brain. This argues for a multidimensional view of sex brain differences and suggests that the issue should be approached with more complex models than previously thought.

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“…Healthy fertile women present less asymmetry between the two hemispheres when steroid hormone levels are higher, such as during the luteal phase, and their hand use effect is reduced [ 1 , 10 ]. In healthy women, the midpoint falls mostly in the left half, regardless of the hand used, probably due to a more efficient inter-hemispheric connection than in men, in whom the posterior portion of the corpus callosum is assumed to be less expressed [ 20 , 21 ]. To date, the definite role of estrogens and progestins in the modulation of interhemispheric connections is still unclear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Brain Asymmetry and Menopausal Treatments: Is There a Link?

et al. 2022

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Background and Objectives: The human brain presents a functional asymmetry for every cognitive function, and it is possible that sexual hormones could have an impact on it. Visual–spatial attention, one of the most lateralized functions and one that is mainly dependent on the right hemisphere, represents a sentinel for functional cerebral asymmetry (FCA). The aim of this study was to evaluate whether menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) or phytoestrogens could modulate FCA in postmenopausal women. Materials and Methods: We enrolled postmenopausal women who were taking MHT or soy isoflavones or receiving no therapy and asked them to perform the line bisection test at study enrollment and after 18 and 36 months. Results: Ninety women completed the follow-up. At zero time, women who had not been subjected to therapy showed a leftward deviation (F = −3.0), whereas, after 36 months, the test results showed a rightward deviation (F = 4.5; p < 0.01). Women taking MHT showed a leftward deviation at the start (F= −3.0) and a persistent leftward deviation after 36 months (F= −4.0; p = 0.08). Conversely, women taking soy isoflavones started with a leftward deviation (F = −3.0) that became rightward (F = 3.0), with a significant difference shown after 36 months (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Our data suggest that hormonal modulation improves the interplay between the two hemispheres and reduces FCA. We propose, therefore, that the functions of the right hemisphere are mainly affected by aging and that this could be one of the reasons why the right hemisphere is more susceptible to the effects of MHT.

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Sex differences in associations between spatial ability and corpus callosum morphology

Cited by 10 publications

References 39 publications

Sex differences in the social brain and in social cognition

Sex differences in the social brain and in social cognition

Sex differences in brain homotopic co-activations: a meta-analytic study

Functional Brain Asymmetry and Menopausal Treatments: Is There a Link?

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