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Sex differences in visuo-spatial processing: An fMRI study of mental rotation
Abstract
Following the theoretical framework of coordinate and categorical principals for visuo-spatial processing, originally formulated by [Kosslyn, S. M. (1987). Seeing and imagining in the cerebral hemispheres: AQ computational approach. Psychological Review, 94, 148-175], we present data from an fMRI study on mental rotation, using the classic [Shepard, R. N., & Metzler, J. (1971). Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects. Science, 171, 701-703] task, comparing males and females. Subjects were presented with black-and-white drawings of 3-D shapes taken from the set of 3-D perspective drawings developed by [Shepard, R. N., & Metzler, J. (1971). Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects. Science, 171, 701-703], alternated with 2-D white bars as control stimuli. The drawings were presented pairwise, as black and white drawings against a black circular background. On half of the trials, the two 3-D shapes were congruent but portrayed with different orientation, in the other half the two shapes were incongruent. Analysis of response accuracy and reaction times did not reveal any significant differences between the sexes. However, clusters of significant neuronal activation were found in the superior parietal lobule (BA 7), more intensely over the right hemisphere, and bilaterally in the inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44/45). Males showed predominantly parietal activation, while the females, in addition, showed inferior frontal activation. We suggest that males may be biased towards…
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“Several used brain scans during testing and found brain activation differences between women and men (e.g., Gur et al., 2000;Hugdahl et al., 2006;Jaušovec & Jaušovec, 2012;Jordan et al., 2002).”
From Factors Related to Mean Score Group Differences on Cognitive Ability Tests: A Systematic Review (2025) · cites this paper as Hugdahl et al., 2006
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The effect of mental rotation on changes in plasma testosterone and cortisol levels
Durdiaková, J., Hodosy, J., Kubranská, A., Ostatníková, D., & Celec, P. (2012) · Central European Journal of Biology · doi:10.2478/s11535-012-0084-6 · Cited by 2
Bertsch, S., Knee, H. D., & Webb, J. L. (2011) · Psychological Reports · doi:10.2466/04.23.27.pr0.108.1.14-22 · Cited by 2
“The pattern can be explained using the theory of Functional Cerebral Distance (Kinsbourne, 1983), which proposes that cerebral activity does not remain a local, limited phenomenon—the activity spreads to nearby loci, influencing a wider range of processing.”
MethodInfluentialChuang, S., & Crowder, C. L. (2019) · Advances in higher education and professional development book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-8286-1.ch013 · Cited by 1
Kozlova, Z., Cera, R., Hoyer, C., Flegr, S., Jochen, K., & Hofer, S. I. (2026) · Computers & Education · doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2026.105577 · Cited by 1
Eye-Tracking Metrics and Visuospatial Task Complexity: A Comparative Analysis
Karunathilake, S., Meissner, C., & Saravanan, P. (2025) · Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · doi:10.1177/10711813251357917 · Cited by 1
“Most of these studies have solely focused on exploring mental rotation (Hugdahl et al., 2006), visuospatial working memory (Lecerf & de Ribaupierre, 2005), visuospatial abilities (Sanchez, 2012), information processing (Babály & Kárpáti, 2016), and visual search (Liu et al., 2015).”
Estimating Brain Similarity Networks with Diffusion MRI
Sadikov, A., Choi, H. L., Cai, L.-Y. T., & Mukherjee, P. (2025) · bioRxiv · doi:10.1101/2025.03.29.646134 · Cited by 1
“DSNs demonstrated sex differences that corresponded to known sexual dimorphisms of the human cerebral cortex, most prominently in the right greater than left parietooccipital regions which have been related to visuospatial functions such as mental rotation [Hugdahl et al., 2006; Jordan, 2002].”
Rodrigues, J., Marzban, D., & Hewig, J. S. (2021) · Symmetry · doi:10.3390/sym13122337 · Cited by 1
Numerical Comparisons and Sex-Related Brain Connectivity
Gómez-Velázquez, F. R., González-Garrido, A., Salido-Ruiz, R., Torres-Ramos, S., Espinoza-Valdez, A., Román-Godínez, I., & Villuendas-González, E. (2021) · doi:10.5539/ijps.v13n2p62 · Cited by 1
“Still, they probably depend on different cognitive strategies relying more on imagery and visual processes (e.g., Hugdahl, Thomsen, & Ersland, 2006), whereas females tend to prefer verbal strategies (Hugdahl et al., 2006).”
BackgroundApplication of deep learning to brain connectivity classification in large MRI datasets
Leming, M. (2020) · doi:10.17863/cam.58159 · Cited by 1
“lobule and the inferior frontal cortex in response to mental rotation tasks (Hugdahl et al., 2006); and limbic regions, prefrontal regions, visual cortex, the anterior cingulate gyrus, and the right subcallosal gyrus in response to emotional faces (Fischer et al.”
BackgroundInfluentialThe neural substrates of visual organization in children and adolescents: An fMRI study
Wuang, Y.-P., Wang, C.-C., Tsai, H.-Y., & Wan, Y.-T. (2020) · Applied Neuropsychology Child · doi:10.1080/21622965.2020.1815536 · Cited by 1
“However, several studies have suggested that cortical activation patterns were different between females and males despite their comparable performances on visualspatial measures (Butler et al., 2006; Hugdahl et al., 2006).”
BackgroundHalpern, D. F., Flores-Mendoza, C. E., & Rindermann, H. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108561716.014 · Cited by 2
Berkowitz, M., Stern, E., Hofer, S. I., & Deiglmayr, A. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108561716.032 · Cited by 3
A Gendered Light on Empathy, Prosocial Behavior, and Forgiveness
Karniol, R., & Čehajić‐Clancy, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108561716.020 · Cited by 1
Gender and Adolescent Development across Cultures
Qu, Y., Zhang, S., Kalindi, S. C., Yang, B., & Wang, Q. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108561716.010 · Cited by 1
Sex and Ability Differences in Neural Strategy for Piaget’s Water Level Test
Wu, S., Li, Y., & Kong, M. (2017) · Perceptual and Motor Skills · doi:10.1177/0031512516687902 · Cited by 1
A Comparison of Interactive Shadows and Multi-View Layouts for Mouse-based 3D Modelling
O’Donovan, S., Gain, J., & DeRenzi, B. (2016) · Research Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists · doi:10.1145/2987491.2987531 · Cited by 1
EEG-based neural decoding of Intelligence Questions
Schlattner, I., Leydecker, A., Biesmann, F., Chen, Y., & Fazli, S. (2015) · The 3rd International Winter Conference on Brain-Computer Interface · doi:10.1109/iww-bci.2015.7073025 · Cited by 1
“processing such as mental rotation [14], processing of chaotic patterns [15] and during the use of spatial imagery in deductive reasoning [16].”
BackgroundSexual Dimorphisms in Spatial Memory, Facial Recognition, and Reaction Time
Waller, H., & Lin, A. (2012) · doi:10.47611/jsr.v1i1.52 · Cited by 1
“Hugdahl et al. (2006) observed sexual dimorphisms in processing of spatial information unrelated to faces, Speck et al. (2000) isolated visual processing differences independent from the spatial component, and Lewin et al. (2002) found that males and females process faces in separate ways.”
BackgroundKelley, M. P. (2011) · doi:10.4236/nm.2011.24041 · Cited by 1
“Many neuroimaging studies have demonstrated mental rotation to be mediated primarily by the parietal lobes, particularly on the right side (e.g., [26] [27]).”
BackgroundZanden, B. E. V. (2018) · doi:10.26199/5b85dca699796 · Cited by 1
“Furthermore, other studies showed that women and men use different brain structures when performing mental rotation (e.g., Gur et al., 2000; Haier et al., 2004, 2005; Haier et al. 2006; Hugdahl et al. 2006).”
BackgroundImpact of gender-typed toys on children’s neurological development.
Eliot, L. (2018) · doi:10.1037/0000077-009 · Cited by 1
McConnell, W. J. (2015) · doi:10.25777/twkg-7e89 · Cited by 1
Factors Related to Mean Score Group Differences on Cognitive Ability Tests: A Systematic Review
Cuppello, S., Zibarras, L. D., & Corr, P. J. (2025) · Trends in Psychology · doi:10.1007/s43076-025-00504-5
Framing the figure: Mental rotation revisited in light of cognitive strategies
Bilge, A. R., & Taylor, H. A. (2016) · Memory & Cognition · doi:10.3758/s13421-016-0648-1 · Cited by 27
“Hemispheric laterality observed inmental rotation further supports these two strategies (e.g., Hugdahl et al., 2006).”
BackgroundHemispheric segregation is evident in early perception, not just higher cognition
Reinke, P., & Ocklenburg, S. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1879495
“Functional magnetic imaging (fMRI), for example, revealed a right hemispheric dominance for face processing (Frässle et al., 2016), and visual-spatial tasks (Hugdahl et al., 2006), as well as a left hemispheric dominance for language processes (Hirnstein et al., 2013).”
Nanova, P. (2026) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2026.1777556
“These topographic differences may partly reflect differences in cognitive strategy (Hugdahl et al., 2006).”
Nam, D. W., Yun, J., Park, H.-R., Tran, N.-T., Han, J.-H., Yang, J., Kim, M., Kim, C.-H., Ye, J.-C.-O., Kim, B., et al. (2026) · Ear and Hearing · doi:10.1097/aud.0000000000001837
When moving in a sphere, gender gaps may disappear
Fiedler, J., & Treves, A. (2026) · Royal Society Open Science · doi:10.1098/rsos.252089
“This may suggest that males are benefiting from Euclidean structure as they tend to rely more on coordinate-based spatial processing [10,48].”
Neuroimaging insights into transgender and gender nonconfirming youth: a scoping review
Bonnekoh, L., Rölver, A., Wessing, I., Fellmeth, R., Schürmeyer, N., Dannlowski, U., & Romer, G. (2025) · Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health · doi:10.1186/s13034-025-00987-1
“In a publication from 2016, Burke and colleagues conducted a mental rotation task, a working memory task with well-documented gender-related performance differences [40, 41].”
Xu, A. L., & Cassinelli, Á. (2025) · Creativity & Cognition · doi:10.1145/3698061.3726911
“Indeed, prior studies—for instance, Geiser et al. [18], Hugdahl et al. [21], Barkley et al. [3], Cooke-Simpson et al. [13], and Xue et al. [60]—often omit explicit details on display dimensions or equipment portability.”
Zhang, N., Wang, F., He, M.-L., & Chen, L. (2025) · Nursing Research and Practice · doi:10.1155/nrp/1203145
“Brain imaging studies have found that men and women activate signifcantly diferent neural networks during 4 Nursing Research and Practice brain-rotation tasks, such as increased activation in the parietal lobe in men and increased activation in the frontal lobe in women [43, 44].”
Infant's recognition of three‐dimensional form: Mirror image and structurally distinct objects
Hawkins, L. B., Nyman, T., & Wilcox, T. (2021) · Infant and Child Development · doi:10.1002/icd.2299 · Cited by 1
The Psychology of Women in Entrepreneurship
Chan, E. T., Tang, P. M., & Chen, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108561716.025
Metadata
- Authors
- Hugdahl, K., Thomsen, T., & Ersland, L.
- Affiliations
- Haukeland University Hospital (NO)
- Corresponding author
- Hugdahl, Kenneth
- ORCID
- Hugdahl, Kenneth
- Venue
- Neuropsychologia
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2006-01
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1575-1583
- ISSN
- 0028-3932 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1978753300
- Cited by
- 368
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 73 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 23
- FWCI
- 48.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuropsychologia (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Spatial Cognition and Navigation
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Spatial Neglect and Hemispheric Dysfunction
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Keywords
- sex differences, mental rotation, visuospatial processing, superior parietal lobule, inferior frontal gyrus, hemispheric lateralization, brain activation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Imagination, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Oxygen, Photic Stimulation, Psychomotor Performance, Reaction Time, Sex Characteristics, Space Perception, Visual Perception
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