Sex Differences in Functional Cerebral Asymmetries in a Repeated Measures Design

Hausmann, Markus; Güntürkün, Onur

doi:10.1006/brcg.1999.1126

Cited by 62 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The second experiment of this study yielded that the FCA pattern in men and postmenopausal women remained stable over time for all these tasks and were similar to those of spontaneously cycling women during menses [8]. The control of carry-over effects due to the repeated measures design [7] as well as the validation of cycle phases using hormone assays were two important preconditions to reveal these results. Moreover, we could show the progesterone level to be an important agent that is significantly enhanced during the luteal phase, and that was significantly related to the degree of FCA.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…The VHF procedure was identical to previous studies [7,8]. The experiment started by placing the head of a subject to a chin rest at a distance of 68 cm from a monitor.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To determine FCAs, we used three VHF-field tasks which usually showed a clear left hemispheric (lexical decision task) or right-hemispheric advantage (figural comparison and face discrimination) in previous studies [7,8]. Moreover, the difficulty of these tasks differ.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the difficulty of these tasks differ. The face discrimination task is the most demanding and strongest lateralized task [7]. Levels of progesterone, estradiol, testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) of each women were analyzed by radioimmunoassay (RIA) from blood-samples for each testing session.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Functional cerebral asymmetries during the menstrual cycle: a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis

et al. 2002

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This study aims at answering two basic questions regarding the mechanisms with which hormones modulate functional cerebral asymmetries. Which steroids or gonadotropins fluctuating during the menstrual cycle affect perceptual asymmetries? Can these effects be demonstrated in a cross-sectional (follicular and midluteal cycle phases analyzed) and a longitudinal design, in which the continuous hormone and asymmetry fluctuations were measured over a time course of 6 weeks? To answer these questions, 12 spontaneously cycling right-handed women participated in an experiment in which their levels of progesterone, estradiol, testosterone, LH, and FSH were assessed every 3 days by blood-sample based radioimmunoassays (RIAs). At the same points in time their asymmetries were analyzed with visual half-field (VHF) techniques using a lexical decision, a figure recognition, and a face discrimination task. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyzes showed that an increase of progesterone is related to a reduction in asymmetries in a figure recognition task by increasing the performance of the left-hemisphere which is less specialized for this task. Cross-sectionally, estradiol was shown to have significant relationships to the accuracy and the response speed of both hemispheres. However, since these effects were in the same direction, asymmetry was not affected. This was not the case in the longitudinal design, where estradiol affected the asymmetry in the lexical decision and the figural comparison task. Overall, these data show that hormonal fluctuations within the menstrual cycle have important impacts on functional cerebral asymmetries. The effect of progesterone was highly reliable and could be shown in both analysis schemes. By contrast, estradiol mainly, but not exclusively, affected both hemispheres in the same direction.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…The VHF procedure was identical to previous studies [7,8]. The experiment started by placing the head of a subject to a chin rest at a distance of 68 cm from a monitor.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Functional cerebral asymmetries during the menstrual cycle: a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis

et al. 2002

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“…Since there is evidence that men are more lateralized than women (e.g. Hausmann et al, 1998;Hausmann and Güntürkün, 1999;McGlone, 1980;Voyer, 1996), as well as evidence that women are superior to men in fine motor tasks (e.g. Halpern, 2000;Kimura, 1999), we were also alert to possible gender differences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Task Complexity on Manual Asymmetries

Hausmann

Kirk

Corballis

2004

Cortex

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The degree of manual asymmetry is generally assumed to vary with task complexity. However, task complexity as a factor in manual asymmetries has rarely been examined directly. Further, the results of psychophysical studies indicate that manual asymmetry increases with task complexity, while physiological studies consistently report a reduction of manual asymmetries in more complex tasks. The use of different tasks (rather than different complexity levels within a given task) in many psychophysical studies might result in this inconsistency. This study investigated the influence of task complexity on manual asymmetries in 70 right-handed subjects. We used three complexity levels within a finger-tapping paradigm. A strong advantage of the preferred hand was particularly pronounced in the simple finger-tapping task. When the task was more complex, the advantage of the preferred hand, and thus, the manual asymmetry significantly decreased or disappeared. These results support previous suggestions that simple motor tasks involve localised neural networks confined to one cerebral hemisphere, while complex motor tasks are controlled by more widely distributed neuronal assemblies that involve both hemispheres. However, the influence of task complexity on manual asymmetry seems not to be monotonic.

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Dynamic changes in functional cerebral connectivity of spatial cognition during the menstrual cycle

Weis

Hausmann

Stoffers

et al. 2010

Human Brain Mapping

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Functional cerebral asymmetries (FCAs) in women have been shown to vary with changing levels of sex hormones during the menstrual cycle. Previous studies have suggested that interhemispheric interaction forms a key component in generating FCAs and it has been shown behaviorally and by functional imaging that interhemispheric interaction changes during the menstrual cycle, at least for a left hemisphere dominant task. We used functional MRI and an analysis of functional connectivity to examine whether changes in right hemisphere advantage for a figure comparison task as found in behavioral studies, are based on comparable mechanisms like those identified for the verbal task. Women were examined three times during the menstrual cycle, during the menstrual, follicular and luteal phases. The behavioral data confirmed the right hemisphere advantage for the figure comparison task as well as changes of the right hemisphere advantage during the menstrual cycle. Imaging data showed cycle phase-related changes in lateralized brain activation within the task-dominant hemisphere and changes in connectivity between nonhomotopic areas of both hemispheres, suggesting that changes in functional brain organization in women during the menstrual cycle are not only restricted to hormone-related changes of interhemispheric inhibition between homotopic areas, as has been proposed earlier, but might additionally apply to changes of neuronal processes within the hemispheres which seem to be modulated by heterotopic functional connectivity between hemispheres.

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Sex Differences in Functional Cerebral Asymmetries in a Repeated Measures Design

Cited by 62 publications

References 46 publications

Functional cerebral asymmetries during the menstrual cycle: a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis

Functional cerebral asymmetries during the menstrual cycle: a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis

Influence of Task Complexity on Manual Asymmetries

Dynamic changes in functional cerebral connectivity of spatial cognition during the menstrual cycle

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