Sex differences and functional hemispheric asymmetries during number comparison

BACKGROUND: Global-local stimuli are hierarchical structures consisting of a larger global structure which is composed of smaller local stimuli. Numbers are also constructed hierarchically, with multi-digit numbers being made up from single digits. During two-digit number comparison, compatible items (larger number contains larger unit digit, e.g., 53 vs. 68) are processed faster and more accurately than incompatible items (smaller number contains larger unit digit, e.g., 58 vs. 63). This so-called unit-decade-compatibility effect has challenged the holistic model of number processing and suggests that the processing of number magnitudes occurs at least in part, decomposed, i.e., separately for each digit. Thus, the compatibility effect is indicative of how decomposed numbers are processed, thereby sharing similarities with traditional global-local processing of hierarchical stimuli. The goal of this study was to investigate whether factors that have been shown to reliably influence global-local processing also affect the compatibility effect during number comparison. Those include visual hemifield, sex, and menstrual cycle phase in women. METHOD: One hundred sixty participants, 77 naturally cycling women and 83 men, completed a two-digit number comparison task twice, with test-sessions time-locked to the early follicular or mid-luteal cycle phase in women. Number comparison stimuli were presented to the right or left hemifield, respectively. RESULTS: We observed a stronger compatibility effect in the right visual hemifield compared to left visual hemifield and in women compared to men, but no evidence for an influence of menstrual cycle phase in women could be found. CONCLUSION: Hemispheric asymmetries in holistic versus decomposed number processing could be demonstrated for the first time, suggesting a similar hemispheric modulation for number magnitude processing as for global-local processing.