Sex differences in visual-spatial working memory: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Visual-spatial working memory measures are widely used in clinical and experimental settings. Furthermore, it has been argued that the male advantage in spatial abilities can be explained by a sex difference in visual-spatial working memory. Therefore, sex differences in visual-spatial working memory have important implication for research, theory, and practice, but they have yet to be quantified. The present metaanalysis quantified the magnitude of sex differences in visualspatial working memory and examined variables that might moderate them. The analysis used a set of 180 effect sizes from healthy males and females drawn from 98 samples ranging in mean age from 3 to 86 years. Multilevel meta-analysis was used on the overall data set to account for nonindependent effect sizes. The data also were analyzed in separate task subgroups by means of multilevel and mixed-effects models. Results showed a small but significant male advantage (mean d = 0.155, 95 % confidence interval = 0.087-0.223). All the tasks produced a male advantage, except for memory for location, where a female advantage emerged. Age of the participants was a significant moderator, indicating that sex differences in visual-spatial working memory appeared first in the 13-17 years age group. Removing memory for location tasks from the sample affected the pattern of significant moderators. The present results indicate a male advantage in visual-spatial working memory, although age and specific task modulate the magnitude and direction of the effects. Implications for clinical applications, cognitive model building, and experimental research are discussed.

Sex classification by resting state brain connectivity

“…Finally, the high classification accuracy in bilateral precuneus might be linked to the established male advantage in visuo-spatial working memory, which has recently been demonstrated based on a large meta-analysis (Voyer D et al 2017).…”

(Putative) sex differences in neuroimmune modulation of memory

“…Given the fundamental nature of memory, it is somewhat surprising that memory function differs between males and females. Nevertheless, sex differences have been observed across a broad range of memory tasks including verbal memory (Kramer et al, 1988), context fear conditioning (Maren et al, 1994; Keiser et al, in review ), extinction of fear conditioning (Lebron-Milad et al, 2012), reward-related learning (Quinn et al, 2007), and spatial memory (Voyer et al, 2016), among others (see also Andreano and Cahill, 2009; Galea et al, 2013). Sex differences are also evident across the cognitive strategies used to learn a task (Grissom et al, 2013; Shah et al, 2013), neural circuits recruited for memory (Gruene et al, 2014), the molecular mechanisms of memory (Keiser and Tronson, 2016), and the modulation of memory by stress (Waddell et al, 2008).…”

Sex Differences in Age-related Impairments Vary across Cognitive and Physical Assessments in Rats

“…Although no overt differences between males and females in cognitive faculties have been documented across mammals [10], a reliable, but modest, performance advantage of males compared to females on spatial tasks has been reported in both rodents [11] and humans [12]. A widely used behavioral assay for testing spatial learning and memory across the lifespan in rodents is the hippocampus-dependent spatial version of the Morris watermaze task, in which animals learn the location of a hidden escape platform in a tank of cold water over several days [13][14][15].…”