Language-Associated Cortical Regions Are Proportionally Larger in the Female Brain

Harasty, Jenny; Double, Kay L.; Halliday, Glenda M.; Kril, Jillian J.; McRitchie, D.A.

doi:10.1001/archneur.1997.00550140045011

Cited by 228 publications

(135 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…One of these regions is the left PFC, including the left IFG (BA 45͞47) and left MFG (BA 46), suggesting greater emphasis on language and executive processing in women. Females have been credited with dominance in language-based approaches to processing stimuli (29,30), a finding consistent with reportedly larger volumes of Broca's area (42) and the DLPFC (43) in women. Prior studies also have revealed greater left IFG activity in women during emotionally incongruous semantic processing, a cognitive paradigm analogous to reconciling the juxtaposed and emotioneliciting components of a humorous stimulus (44).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

Sex differences in brain activation elicited by humor

Azim

Mobbs

et al. 2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

150

104

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With recent investigation beginning to reveal the cortical and subcortical neuroanatomical correlates of humor appreciation, the present event-related functional MRI (fMRI) study was designed to elucidate sex-specific recruitment of these humor related networks. Twenty healthy subjects (10 females) underwent fMRI scanning while subjectively rating 70 verbal and nonverbal achromatic cartoons as funny or unfunny. Data were analyzed by comparing blood oxygenation-level-dependent signal activation during funny and unfunny stimuli. Males and females share an extensive humor-response strategy as indicated by recruitment of similar brain regions: both activate the temporal-occipital junction and temporal pole, structures implicated in semantic knowledge and juxtaposition, and the inferior frontal gyrus, likely to be involved in language processing. Females, however, activate the left prefrontal cortex more than males, suggesting a greater degree of executive processing and language-based decoding. Females also exhibit greater activation of mesolimbic regions, including the nucleus accumbens, implying greater reward network response and possibly less reward expectation. These results indicate sex-specific differences in neural response to humor with implications for sex-based disparities in the integration of cognition and emotion.executive function ͉ male͞female ͉ reward ͉ functional MRI T he long trip to Mars or Venus is hardly necessary to see that men and women often perceive the world differently (1). Extensive investigation suggests that many perceptive incongruities are rooted in the brain's structural and functional organization. Notably, females have been credited with relatively more left-lateralized language and emotion processing, whereas males often tend toward right-lateralized visuospatial activity (2-5). Further, sex differences in interhemispheric communication and brain structure volumes suggest variation in how information is processed (2-4). If males and females diverge at levels of basic neural processing and structure, questions arise about how more complex levels of information integration are affected and how these differences relate to risk for cognitive and emotional dysfunction. Humor is a higher-order process crucial in human interaction, affecting a variety of phenomena on the psychological and physiological level (4-10). Although recent studies have begun to elucidate the cognitive and affective neural correlates of this human quality (7, 10), an examination of sex differences at the neural level remains largely unexplored.Previous investigations reach little consensus on how males and females differ in their appreciation and comprehension of humor. A number of studies show little disparity in humor responsiveness, particularly in frequency of laughter (11, 12), whereas others describe differences in situations in which humor is used and appreciated, in the self-reported enjoyment of different kinds of humor, and even in the meaning and function of laughter itself (11,(13)(14)(15). In the p...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

Sex differences in brain activation elicited by humor

Azim

Mobbs

et al. 2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

150

104

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“…More specifically female brains have been shown to have larger language associated areas than males and increased verbal processing capacity in the right hemisphere compared to males (Annett 1991;Harasty, Double, Halliday, Kril & McRitchie, 1997). Studies have consistently reported that the degree of lateralisation is less in females than in males (Kansaku & Kitazawa, 2001;Levy & Gur, 1980;McGlone, 1980; Shaywitz, et al, 1995).…”

Section: Neuropsychological Evidence For Gender Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Exploration of the Interaction between Speech Rate, Gender, and Cognitive Style in their Effect on Recall

Grimley

2007

Educational Psychology

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This paper explores how the interaction between cognitive style, gender and type of task predict task outcome, particularly when presentation speed is varied. A sample of 91 11-yearold pupils the Cognitive Style Analysis. Pupils were assigned to one of two groups balanced for gender and cognitive style. Group 1 listened to a recording of a passage presented at 84wpm; group two listened to the same passage at 197wpm. Pupils were then required to comprehend and recall information from the passage that required assimilation of distantly positioned information. Male verbalisers and female imagers performed well in the slow condition but poorly in the fast condition. Female verbalisers showed improved performance in the fast condition. Results indicated that the interaction between verbal imagery style and gender predicts the outcome of verbal tasks, especially when processing speed was restricted.These results support differences in information processing between genders and also suggest that this processing is mediated by verbal imagery cognitive style.Keywords: Cognitive Style, Processing Speed, Gender, Verbal Imagery, Informationprocessing This paper considers cognitive style and its interactions with gender for mediating task outcome. In particular it investigates the effect of reductions in processing time for a 2 2 verbal comprehension task and its effect on outcome for different cognitive style by gender groupings. This study builds on an initial study by Riding and Vincent (1980) that demonstrated that males and females processed information differently when assimilating distantly linked verbal material presented at differing speeds. The original study did not assess cognitive style or any interactions that cognitive style may have had with gender which may be an important factor in explaining why males and females process information of this type differently. More recently studies have indicated that cognitive style, namely verbal imagery style and gender interact differently for different tasks to mediate outcome (Riding & Armstrong, 1982;Riding & Boardman, 1983;Riding & Borg, 1987;Riding & Cowley, 1986;Riding, Dahraei, Grimley & Banner, 2001;Riding & Egelstaff, 1983; Riding & RigbySmith, 1984). In addition, this paper assimilates neuropsychological findings for cognitive style and gender differences in an attempt to explain these interactions. Cognitive Style and its Assessment.Riding and Rayner (1998) define cognitive style as "an individual's preferred and habitual approach to organising and representing information" (p11). Cognitive style can be viewed as a relatively stable and fixed attribute of an individual, which is mirrored by individual brain correlates for individuals of differing styles (Glass and Riding, 1999;Riding, Glass, Butler & Pleydell-Pearce, 1997;Riding, Glass & Douglas, 1993). Riding and Cheema (1991) and Riding and Rayner (1998) suggest that style can be described by two distinct dimensions and that these dimensions reflect a number of style labels conceptualised within the ...

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“…Because higher brain functions are related to the activity of the neocortex, many studies aimed at identifying possible structural correlations for cognitive gender differences have focused on the cerebral cortex, using a variety of anatomical and brain imaging techniques. At the macroscopic level, sexual dimorphism has been reported in the cortical volume of the Wernicke and Broca areas (6), as well as in the frontal and medial paralimbic cortices (7)(8)(9)(10), and in the thickness and density of the gray matter in the parietal lobes (for a review see ref. 10).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender differences in human cortical synaptic density

Alonso‐Nanclares

González‐Soriano²,

Toledo-Rodriguez³

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

190

153

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Certain cognitive functions differ in men and women, although the anatomical and functional substrates underlying these differences remain unknown. Because neocortical activity is directly related with higher brain function, numerous studies have focused on the cerebral cortex when searching for possible structural correlates of cognitive gender differences. However, there are no studies on possible gender differences at the synaptic level. In the present work we have used stereological and correlative light and electron microscopy to show that men have a significantly higher synaptic density than women in all cortical layers of the temporal neocortex. These differences may represent a microanatomical substrate contributing to the functional gender differences in brain activity.electron microscopy ͉ neocortex ͉ neuronal density ͉ sex

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Language-Associated Cortical Regions Are Proportionally Larger in the Female Brain

Abstract: Our results suggest that females have proportionally larger Wernicke and Broca language-associated regions compared with males. These anatomical differences may correlate with superior language skills previously demonstrated in females.

Cited by 228 publications

References 33 publications

Sex differences in brain activation elicited by humor

Sex differences in brain activation elicited by humor

An Exploration of the Interaction between Speech Rate, Gender, and Cognitive Style in their Effect on Recall

Gender differences in human cortical synaptic density

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