The gist and details of sex differences in cognition and the brain: How parallels in sex differences across domains are shaped by the locus coeruleus and catecholamine systems

Across three different domains, there are similar sex differences in how men and women process information. There tends to be a male advantage in attending to and remembering the gist (essential central information of a scene or situation), but a female advantage in attending to and remembering the details (non-essential peripheral information of a scene or situation). This is seen in emotional memory, where emotion enhances gist memory more for males than for females, but enhances detail memory more for females than for males. It also occurs in spatial memory, where men tend to notice and remember the gist of where they or objects are in space, allowing them to more flexibly manipulate themselves or objects within that space, whereas women tend to recall the details of the space around them, allowing them to accurately remember the locations of objects. Finally, such sex differences have also been noted in perception of stimuli such that men attend to global aspects of stimuli (such as a large letter E) more than women, whereas women attend more to the local aspects (such as the many smaller letter Ts making up the E). We review the parallel sex differences seen across these domains in this paper and how they relate to the different brain systems involved in each of these task domains. In addition, we discuss how sex differences in evolutionary pressures and in the locus coeruleus and norepinephrine system may account for why parallel sex differences occur across these different task domains.

Sex-linked white matter microstructure of the social and analytic brain

Sexual dimorphism in the brain is known to underpin sex differences in neuropsychological behaviors. The white matter (WM) microstructure appears to be coupled with cognitive performances. However, the issues concerning sex differences in WM remains to be determined. This study used the tract-based spatial statistics on diffusion tensor imaging concurrently with the assessments of Empathizing Quotient (EQ) and Systemizing Quotient (SQ) in forty healthy female and forty male adults. Females exhibited greater fractional anisotropy (FA) in the fronto-occipital fasciculus, body of the corpus callosum, and WM underlying the parahippocampal gyrus. Males exhibited larger FA in the bilateral internal capsule, WM underlying the medial frontal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, hippocampus, insula, postcentral gyrus, frontal and temporal lobe. Interestingly, the interaction analysis of dispositional measures by sex showed that females had a positive correlation between FA of the WM underlying the inferior parietal lobule and superior temporal gyrus and EQ but a negative correlation between FA of the occipital and postcentral gyrus and SQ. Males displayed the opposite effect. The findings indicate a sexual dimorphism of WM microstructure. Divergent correlations of WM microstructure and neuropsychological behaviors between sexes may account for the higher prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in males.