Mental rotation-related neural interactions between gender and cognitive strategy

A long-standing history of research has focused on the differences between men and women in cognitive tasks, including that men would be more accurate and faster than women in mental rotation (MR). This advantage suggests that men would use an object-based cognitive strategy (OBS) to perform MR, whereas women would rely more on an effector-based cognitive strategy (EBS). To test this hypothesis, participants in the present study performed MR using OBS and EBS (plus a control condition) while their brain activity was recorded using fMRI. As sex hormones have often been reported to influence spatial ability, we also assessed the relationship between MR and testosterone levels and digit ratio. Behavioral results showed that (1) men performed faster MR than women in the OBS and control conditions, (2) men were more accurate than women in the OBS condition, and (3) women performed better in OBS than the other two conditions. No relationship was found between MR and testosterone or digit ratio. fMRI data showed that women in the OBS condition had greater activation than men in the inferior frontal and somatosensory cortices. Salivary testosterone levels had no effect on whole-brain activity. Combining behavioral and brain imaging data, these findings suggest that the additional somatosensory activation found in women during OBS somehow affects their MR, preventing the use of a purely spatial strategy and promoting the use of body-based sensorimotor processing, which would result in lower accuracy. These results support that gender differences in MR would be better explained by considering their relationship with the cognitive strategies used to perform MR.