http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WBY-50822BG-1&_user=1394575&_coverDate=08%2F31%2F2010&_rdoc=4&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_origin=browse&_zone=rslt_list_item&_srch=doc-info%28%23toc%236723%232010%23999269996%232189789%23FLA%23display%23Volume%29&_cdi=6723&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=13&_acct=C000047079&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1394575&md5=3c339e123ac3225e20efde1c2d0330e5&searchtype=a

Sex differences in face processing: Are women less lateralized and faster
than men?

Ornella GodardCorresponding and Nicole Fioria

a Laboratoire de Psychologie et de Neuropsychologie Cognitives, Université
Paris Descartes, CNRS, FRE 3292, France

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of sex on hemispheric
asymmetry and cooperation in a face recognition task. We used a masked
priming paradigm in which the prime stimulus was centrally presented; it
could be a bisymmetric face or a hemi-face in which facial information was
presented in the left or the right visual field and projected to the right
or the left hemisphere. The target stimulus was always a bisymmetric face
presented centrally. Faces were selected from Minear and Park's (2004)
database. Fifty-two right-handed students (26 men, 26 women) participated
in this experiment, in which accuracy (percentage of correct responses)
and reaction times (RTs in ms) were measured. Although accuracy data
showed that the percentage of correct recognition – when prime and target
matched – was equivalent in men and women, men's RTs were longer than
women's in all conditions. Accuracy and RTs showed that men are more
strongly lateralized than women, with right hemispheric dominance. These
results suggest that men are as good at face recognition as women, but
there are functional differences in the two sexes. The findings are
discussed in terms of functional cerebral networks distributed over both
hemispheres and of interhemispheric transmission.

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