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Sex differences in cortical and subcortical recruitment during simple and complex motor control: An fMRI study

Lissek, S.; Hausmann, M.; Knossalla, F.; Peters, S.; Nicolas, V.; Güntürkün, O.; Tegenthoff, M.

Authors

S. Lissek

F. Knossalla

S. Peters

V. Nicolas

O. Güntürkün

M. Tegenthoff



Abstract

In this study we compared brain activation patterns in men and women during performance of a fine motor task, in order to investigate the influence of motor task complexity upon asymmetries of hemispheric recruitment. Thirty-three right-handed participants (17 male, 16 female) performed a self-paced finger-tapping task comprising three conditions of increasing complexity with both the dominant and the non-dominant hand. Imaging results demonstrated significant sex differences in brain activation patterns. While women showed significantly larger activation of ipsi- and contralateral task-related cortical areas than men, men exhibited significantly stronger subcortical activation in striatal regions. The observed activation differences may reflect sex differences in control of voluntary motor skills related to differential emphasis upon cortical and subcortical correlates of motor sequence processing, as well as differences in hemispheric recruitment, by means of which men and women can nevertheless achieve comparable motor performance.

Citation

Lissek, S., Hausmann, M., Knossalla, F., Peters, S., Nicolas, V., Güntürkün, O., & Tegenthoff, M. (2007). Sex differences in cortical and subcortical recruitment during simple and complex motor control: An fMRI study. NeuroImage, 37(3), 912-926. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.05.037

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Sep 1, 2007
Deposit Date Feb 24, 2009
Journal NeuroImage
Print ISSN 1053-8119
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 37
Issue 3
Pages 912-926
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.05.037