Cargando…

Functional sex differences in human primary auditory cortex

BACKGROUND: We used PET to study cortical activation during auditory stimulation and found sex differences in the human primary auditory cortex (PAC). Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured in 10 male and 10 female volunteers while listening to sounds (music or white noise) and during a ba...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ruytjens, Liesbet, Georgiadis, Janniko R., Holstege, Gert, Wit, Hero P., Albers, Frans W. J., Willemsen, Antoon T. M.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer-Verlag 2007
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2100432/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17703299
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00259-007-0517-z
_version_ 1782138343126990848
author Ruytjens, Liesbet
Georgiadis, Janniko R.
Holstege, Gert
Wit, Hero P.
Albers, Frans W. J.
Willemsen, Antoon T. M.
author_facet Ruytjens, Liesbet
Georgiadis, Janniko R.
Holstege, Gert
Wit, Hero P.
Albers, Frans W. J.
Willemsen, Antoon T. M.
author_sort Ruytjens, Liesbet
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: We used PET to study cortical activation during auditory stimulation and found sex differences in the human primary auditory cortex (PAC). Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured in 10 male and 10 female volunteers while listening to sounds (music or white noise) and during a baseline (no auditory stimulation). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: We found a sex difference in activation of the left and right PAC when comparing music to noise. The PAC was more activated by music than by noise in both men and women. But this difference between the two stimuli was significantly higher in men than in women. To investigate whether this difference could be attributed to either music or noise, we compared both stimuli with the baseline and revealed that noise gave a significantly higher activation in the female PAC than in the male PAC. Moreover, the male group showed a deactivation in the right prefrontal cortex when comparing noise to the baseline, which was not present in the female group. Interestingly, the auditory and prefrontal regions are anatomically and functionally linked and the prefrontal cortex is known to be engaged in auditory tasks that involve sustained or selective auditory attention. Thus we hypothesize that differences in attention result in a different deactivation of the right prefrontal cortex, which in turn modulates the activation of the PAC and thus explains the sex differences found in the activation of the PAC. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that sex is an important factor in auditory brain studies.
format Text
id pubmed-2100432
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2007
publisher Springer-Verlag
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-21004322007-12-03 Functional sex differences in human primary auditory cortex Ruytjens, Liesbet Georgiadis, Janniko R. Holstege, Gert Wit, Hero P. Albers, Frans W. J. Willemsen, Antoon T. M. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging Original Article BACKGROUND: We used PET to study cortical activation during auditory stimulation and found sex differences in the human primary auditory cortex (PAC). Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured in 10 male and 10 female volunteers while listening to sounds (music or white noise) and during a baseline (no auditory stimulation). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: We found a sex difference in activation of the left and right PAC when comparing music to noise. The PAC was more activated by music than by noise in both men and women. But this difference between the two stimuli was significantly higher in men than in women. To investigate whether this difference could be attributed to either music or noise, we compared both stimuli with the baseline and revealed that noise gave a significantly higher activation in the female PAC than in the male PAC. Moreover, the male group showed a deactivation in the right prefrontal cortex when comparing noise to the baseline, which was not present in the female group. Interestingly, the auditory and prefrontal regions are anatomically and functionally linked and the prefrontal cortex is known to be engaged in auditory tasks that involve sustained or selective auditory attention. Thus we hypothesize that differences in attention result in a different deactivation of the right prefrontal cortex, which in turn modulates the activation of the PAC and thus explains the sex differences found in the activation of the PAC. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that sex is an important factor in auditory brain studies. Springer-Verlag 2007-08-17 2007-12 /pmc/articles/PMC2100432/ /pubmed/17703299 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00259-007-0517-z Text en © Springer-Verlag 2007
spellingShingle Original Article
Ruytjens, Liesbet
Georgiadis, Janniko R.
Holstege, Gert
Wit, Hero P.
Albers, Frans W. J.
Willemsen, Antoon T. M.
Functional sex differences in human primary auditory cortex
title Functional sex differences in human primary auditory cortex
title_full Functional sex differences in human primary auditory cortex
title_fullStr Functional sex differences in human primary auditory cortex
title_full_unstemmed Functional sex differences in human primary auditory cortex
title_short Functional sex differences in human primary auditory cortex
title_sort functional sex differences in human primary auditory cortex
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2100432/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17703299
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00259-007-0517-z
work_keys_str_mv AT ruytjensliesbet functionalsexdifferencesinhumanprimaryauditorycortex
AT georgiadisjannikor functionalsexdifferencesinhumanprimaryauditorycortex
AT holstegegert functionalsexdifferencesinhumanprimaryauditorycortex
AT witherop functionalsexdifferencesinhumanprimaryauditorycortex
AT albersfranswj functionalsexdifferencesinhumanprimaryauditorycortex
AT willemsenantoontm functionalsexdifferencesinhumanprimaryauditorycortex