Gender differences in relationships between degree of brain lateralization and cognitive ability.

摘要

Studies of gender differences in brain lateralization have shown men to be more lateralized for verbal and spatial function than women. Gender differences in cognitive ability have also been shown for measures such as mental rotation and verbal fluency. The present study used analyses of covariance to test if functional and structural brain organization could explain gender differences in cognitive ability, using data from 157 normal subjects (80 men, 77 women). Five tests of functional brain organization (handedness, dichotic listening, divided visual field, pegboard, dermatoglyphics), either separately or together, were not found to predict cognitive ability (mental rotation, water level test, analogies, verbal fluency). Neither were the measures of functional lateralization correlated with each other, raising questions about the construct validity of the term "laterality." Anatomical measures from a subset of subjects who received a head MRI (N = 20) did relate to performance on measures of cognitive ability.