Sex differences in verbal and spatial ability reconsidered in relation to body size, lung volume, and sex hormones

Atrophy of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is associated with poor performance in verbal fluency in elderly poststroke women

This study aimed to investigate the association between atrophy in the prefrontal cortex with executive function and verbal fluency in elderly male and female patients poststroke. Thirty elderly female patients with non-aphasic ischemic stroke aged ≥ 60 years and 30 age-matched non-aphasic male patients with ischemic stroke were recruited. Automatic magnetic resonance imaging segmentation was used to assess the volume of the whole prefrontal cortex, along with its subdivisions: anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The Semantic Verbal Fluency Test was administered at 3 and 15 months poststroke. At 3 months poststroke, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex volume was significantly correlated with Verbal Fluency Test score in female patients only (partial coefficient = 0.453, P = 0.045), after controlling for age, education, diabetes, neurological deficit, white matter lesions volume, as well as the location and volume of infarcts. At 15 months poststroke, there remained a significant association between the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex volume and Verbal Fluency Test (partial coefficient = 0.661, P = 0.001) and between the left prefrontal cortex volume and Verbal Fluency Test (partial coefficient = 0.573, P = 0.004) in female patients after the same adjustments. These findings indicate that atrophy of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex contributes to the impairment of verbal fluency in elderly female patients with stroke. Sex differences may be present in the neuropsychological mechanisms of verbal fluency impairment in patients with stroke.

The psychomotor theory of human mind

This study presents a new theory to explain the neural origins of human mind. This is the psychomotor theory. The author briefly analyzed the historical development of the mind-brain theories. The close relations between psychological and motor systems were subjected to a rather detailed analysis, using psychiatric and neurological examples. The feedback circuits between mind, brain, and body were shown to occur within the mind-brain-body triad, in normal states, and psycho-neural diseases. It was stated that psychiatric signs and symptoms are coupled with motor disturbances; neurological diseases are coupled with psychological disturbances; changes in cortico-spinal motor-system activity may influence mind-brain-body triad, and vice versa. Accordingly, a psychomotor theory was created to explain the psychomotor coupling in health and disease, stating that, not the mind-brain duality or unity, but the mind-brain-body triad as a functional unit may be essential in health and disease, because mind does not end in the brain, but further controls movements, in a reciprocal manner; mental and motor events share the same neural substrate, cortical, and spinal motoneurons; mental events emerging from the motoneuronal system expressed by the human language may be closely coupled with the unity of the mind-brain-body triad. So, the psychomotor theory rejects the mind-brain duality and instead advances the unity of the psychomotor system, which will have important consequences in understanding and improving the human mind, brain, and body in health and disease.

Cognitive abilities, androgen levels, and body mass index in 5-year-old children

This study explores the potential relationship between a series of cognitive abilities and testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), androstenedione, and body mass index (BMI) measurements in 5-year-old children. 60 boys and 69 girls were administered a test (K-BIT) which provided measurements of fluid intelligence (Matrices subtest), crystallized intelligence (Vocabulary subtest), and IQ composite (the combination of the two subtests); a sub-sample of 48 boys and 61 girls was also subjected to diverse tests related to theory of mind (affective labeling, appearance-reality distinction, display rules, and false belief). Testosterone, DHEA, and androstenedione levels were measured using an enzyme immunoassay technique in saliva samples. An analysis of variance failed to reveal any significant differences between boys and girls in any of the cognitive abilities assessed. The correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between fluid intelligence and testosterone levels in boys, a negative relationship between crystallized intelligence and androstenedione levels in girls, and between affective labeling and androstenedione levels in boys. A multiple regression analysis indicated that androstenedione and BMI were the best predictors for some of the cognitive abilities assessed.