Sex differences in cognitive functions are heavily debated. Recent work suggests that sex differences do stem from different processing strategies utilized by men and women. While these processing strategies are likely reflected in different brain networks, so far the link between brain networks and processing strategies remains speculative. In the present study we seek for the first time to link sex differences in brain activation patterns to sex differences in processing strategies utilizing a semantic verbal fluency task in a large sample of 35 men and 35 women, all scanned thrice. For verbal fluency, strategies of clustering and switching have been described. Our results show that men show higher activation in the brain network supporting clustering, while women show higher activation in the brain network supporting switching. Furthermore, converging evidence from activation results, lateralization indices and connectivity analyses suggests that men recruit the right hemisphere more strongly during clustering, but women during switching. These results may explain findings of differential performance and strategy-use in previous behavioral studies.

中文翻译：

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招募右半球：语义语言流畅期间半球间交流的性别差异

认知功能的性别差异引起了激烈的争论。最近的工作表明，性别差异确实源于男性和女性使用的不同处理策略。虽然这些处理策略可能反映在不同的大脑网络中，但到目前为止，大脑网络和处理策略之间的联系仍然是推测性的。在本研究中，我们首次尝试将大脑激活模式的性别差异与处理策略中的性别差异联系起来，利用语义语言流畅性任务，在 35 名男性和 35 名女性的大样本中进行了三次扫描。对于语言流畅性，已经描述了聚类和切换策略。我们的结果表明，男性在支持聚类的大脑网络中表现出更高的激活，而女性在支持切换的大脑网络中表现出更高的激活。此外，来自激活结果、偏侧化指数和连通性分析的汇总证据表明，男性在聚集期间更强烈地招募右半球，而女性在转换期间更强烈地招募右半球。这些结果可以解释先前行为研究中差异表现和策略使用的发现。