Gender differences in brain activation patterns during mental rotation and number related cognitive tasks

Gender differences in the visuo-spatial and mathematical cognitive domain seem to rely on the preferences for different cognitive strategies. Such differences may involve or reflect different neural circuits. In this study three number related tasks and a mental rotation fMRI-paradigm were used to examine whether different brain activation and performance patterns could be observed between genders. In a simple magnitude comparison task no gender differences in brain activation patterns were found. In contrast, during exact calculation, approximation and mental rotation tasks that demand the use of more complex problem solving strategies, different activation patterns were observed between men and women. In particular, women showed additional activation in bilateral temporal, right inferior frontal and primary motor areas. These results indicate that women use cognitive strategies that involve brain areas for spatial and verbal working memory and speech/head-motor mechanisms while solving mental rotation and number related problems.