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. 2009 Sep;3(3):262-276.
doi: 10.1007/s11682-009-9068-1. Epub 2009 May 5.

Gender Differences in Cognitive Control: an Extended Investigation of the Stop Signal Task

Chiang-Shan Ray Li, Sheng Zhang, Jeng-Ren Duann, Peisi Yan, Rajita Sinha, Carolyn M Mazure

Gender Differences in Cognitive Control: an Extended Investigation of the Stop Signal Task

Chiang-Shan Ray Li et al. Brain Imaging Behav. 2009 Sep.

Abstract

Men and women show important differences in clinical conditions in which deficits in cognitive control are implicated. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine gender differences in the neural processes of cognitive control during a stop-signal task. We observed greater activation in men, compared to women, in a wide array of cortical and sub-cortical areas, during stop success (SS) as compared to stop error (SE). Conversely, women showed greater regional brain activation during SE > SS, compared to men. Furthermore, compared to women, men engaged the right inferior parietal lobule to a greater extent during post-SE go compared to post-go go trials. Women engaged greater posterior cingulate cortical activation than men during post-SS slowing in go trial reaction time (RT) but did not differ during post-SE slowing in go trial RT. These findings extended our previous results of gender differences in regional brain activation during response inhibition. The results may have clinical implications by, for instance, helping initiate studies to understand why women are more vulnerable to depression while men are more vulnerable to impulse control disorders.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Stop signal paradigm. In “go” trials (75%) observers responded to the go signal (a circle) and in “stop” trials (25%) they had to withhold the response when they saw the stop signal (an X). In both trials the go signal appeared after a randomized time interval between 1 to 5 s (the fore-period or FP, uniform distribution) following the appearance of the fixation point. The go signal disappeared at the time of button press or when 1 s had elapsed, whichever came first, ending the trial. In a stop trial, the stop signal replaced the go signal by a time delay—the stop signal delay (SSD). The SSD was updated according to a staircase procedure, whereby it increased and decreased by 64 ms following a stop success and stop error trial, respectively
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Brain regions showing greater activation during stop success (SS) > stop error (SE) in men, as compared to women. BOLD contrasts are superimposed on a T1 structural image in sagittal sections from x = −16 to x = +4. Adjacent sections are 4 mm apart. Color bar represents voxel T value. Activated regions are summarized in Table 2. Apart from the pre-supplementary motor area, these brain regions are distinct from the structures that were implicated in response inhibition in our previous work (shown here in BLUE, Li et al. 2006c), suggesting that error processing may play a primary role in mediating these differences
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Effect sizes for the contrast stop success (SS) > stop error (SE) plotted separately for men and women for the seven regions in Table 2. Vertical bars represented the standard deviation. Men and women showed opposite pattern of activity between SS and SE for the pre-supplementary motor area (a), perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (d), and cerebellum (f). Men and women both showed greater activation during SS compared to SE in superior (c, e) and orbital (g) frontal gyri. Men and women both showed less activation during SS compared to SE in the superior colliculus (b)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Brain regions showing differential activation between stop success (SS) and stop error (SE) in women (a) and men (b). BOLD contrasts are superimposed on a T1 structural image in axial sections from y = −42 to y = +66. Adjacent sections are 6 mm apart. Color bar represents voxel T values: warm color: SS>SE; winter color: SE>SS. Image orientation is neurological (i.e., Right=Right). Square boxes highlight the approximate locations of the seven regions that differ in the contrast between men and women (see also Table 2)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Brain regions showing differential activation between post-stop error go (pSE) and post-go go (pG) trials in women (a) and men (b). BOLD contrasts are superimposed on a T1 structural image in axial sections from y = −42 to y = +66. Adjacent sections are 6 mm apart. Color bar represents voxel T values: warm color: pSE>pG; winter color: pSE<pG. Image orientation is neurological (i.e., Right=Right). Overall, men and women both showed cerebral “deactivation” following an error. Unlike women, however, men also activated a few brain regions following an error. Square boxes highlight the approximate locations of the four regions that differ in the contrast between men and women
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Brain regions showing increased activity during post-stop success slowing in go trial RT (pSSi>pSSni) for women (a) and men (b), and during post-stop error slowing in go trial RT (pSEi>pSEni) for women (c) and men (d). BOLD contrasts are superimposed on a T1 structural image. Color bar represents voxel T values. Image orientation is neurological (i.e., Right=Right). Both women and men showed activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) during post-error slowing. Women but not men also showed activation of the posterior cingulate cortex during post-stop success slowing
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