Cognition Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Cognition, including details on psychology, neuroscience, memory, brain theory.

Gender-related differences in lateralization of hippocampal activation and cognitive strategy.

Frings L, Wagner K, Unterrainer J, Spreer J, Halsband U, Schulze-Bonhage A

Epilepsy Centre, University Hospital of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany. frings@nz.ukl.uni-freiburg.de

Gender-related differences in brain activation patterns and their lateralization associated with cognitive functions have been reported in the field of language, emotion, and working memory. Differences have been hypothesized to be due to different cognitive strategies. The aim of the present study was to test whether lateralization of brain activation in the hippocampi during memory processing differs between the sexes. We acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging data from healthy female and male study participants performing a spatial memory task and quantitatively assessed the lateralization of hippocampal activation in each participant. Hippocampal activation was significantly more left lateralized in women, and more right lateralized in men. Correspondingly, women rated their strategy as being more verbal than men did.

Published 3 March 2006 in Neuroreport, 17(4): 417-21.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2005-2008 Cognition Research Today. All Rights Reserved.