Fluctuating sex hormone levels during the menstrual cycle have been shown to affect functional cerebral asymmetries (FCAs) in cognitive domains, contributing to sex-related differences in functional cerebral organization. The line-bisection task is usually used to quantify disorders in spatial attention. Respect to spatial representation, it has been demonstrated that men outperform women in spatial analysis of complex auditory scenes. Although the line-bisection task is a rather indirect measure of callosal function, the importance of the corpus callosum in line-bisection, especially of posterior callosal areas, is demonstrated by several studies This study aims to observe whether there is an effect between gender, hormonal components and spatial attention. Thirty-three healthy volunteers (ten women in age of fertility and thirteen women in menopause and ten man) was investigated during a computer based line-bisection task (considering the position 1: central; 2 low distance right; 3 high distance right; 4 low distance left; 5 high distance left). EEG was recorded by 38 scalp electrodes according to the enlarged 10-20 system. A General Linear Model (GLM) was made considering the effect group and the effect of position in Lateralization for the component Amplitude (V) and Latencies (L). Level of significance was fixed at p<0,05. GLM showed a significant effect (Wilk’s Lambda<,05) for Group (G) and Target Position (TP) but not for interaction Group and Target Position. Particularly we found a significant effect in Left L and V (p<0,05) and Central L for TP; for G GLM found significant effect in Left L and V (p<,05), in Right V (p<0,05) and Central L and V (p<0,05). Post hoc analysis showed a significant effect in 5 TP, in direction of a ampler and faster P300 in all groups, and a significant effect in all the groups in Left L and V (p<,05) and Right V (p<,05) in direction of slower latencies and higher amplitudes in groups of menopause women and faster latencies and less amplitudes in women in fertile age for Left Hemisphere. Conclusion of these preliminary study is that the gender difference and hormonal variations can influence spatial perception, especially in extremely left position, during a line- bisection task, and it could be in direction of a different activation of Left Hemisphere
Gender difference and hormonal phases can affect spatial attention Neuropsychological Trends
INVITTO, SARA;
2013-01-01
Abstract
Fluctuating sex hormone levels during the menstrual cycle have been shown to affect functional cerebral asymmetries (FCAs) in cognitive domains, contributing to sex-related differences in functional cerebral organization. The line-bisection task is usually used to quantify disorders in spatial attention. Respect to spatial representation, it has been demonstrated that men outperform women in spatial analysis of complex auditory scenes. Although the line-bisection task is a rather indirect measure of callosal function, the importance of the corpus callosum in line-bisection, especially of posterior callosal areas, is demonstrated by several studies This study aims to observe whether there is an effect between gender, hormonal components and spatial attention. Thirty-three healthy volunteers (ten women in age of fertility and thirteen women in menopause and ten man) was investigated during a computer based line-bisection task (considering the position 1: central; 2 low distance right; 3 high distance right; 4 low distance left; 5 high distance left). EEG was recorded by 38 scalp electrodes according to the enlarged 10-20 system. A General Linear Model (GLM) was made considering the effect group and the effect of position in Lateralization for the component Amplitude (V) and Latencies (L). Level of significance was fixed at p<0,05. GLM showed a significant effect (Wilk’s Lambda<,05) for Group (G) and Target Position (TP) but not for interaction Group and Target Position. Particularly we found a significant effect in Left L and V (p<0,05) and Central L for TP; for G GLM found significant effect in Left L and V (p<,05), in Right V (p<0,05) and Central L and V (p<0,05). Post hoc analysis showed a significant effect in 5 TP, in direction of a ampler and faster P300 in all groups, and a significant effect in all the groups in Left L and V (p<,05) and Right V (p<,05) in direction of slower latencies and higher amplitudes in groups of menopause women and faster latencies and less amplitudes in women in fertile age for Left Hemisphere. Conclusion of these preliminary study is that the gender difference and hormonal variations can influence spatial perception, especially in extremely left position, during a line- bisection task, and it could be in direction of a different activation of Left HemisphereI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
