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Information processing specialization during interference between global and local aspects of visual hierarchical stimuli in men and women

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Abstract

Sex-related differences in global/local hemispheric selective processing were examined by hierarchically presented letters in conditions of their perception and comparison. Fifty-six right-handed men and 68 women (aged 17–22 years) participated in the experiment. During the interference between global and local aspects of stimuli, the mean reaction time for correct global responses was shorter than for local responses, and the right hemisphere dominated during global selective processing independently of sex. Sex-related differences in perception of visual hierarchical stimuli were more pronounced than during their comparison: men preferred the right-hemispheric global strategy of information processing, and women, the left-hemispheric local one. The dominance of the global strategy in men and local strategy in women during visual hierarchical stimuli perception, together with the absence of sex-related differences in correct responses indicates the possibility of obtaining the same efficiency of cognitive activity in different ways.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Siberian Branch, Novosibirsk, 630117, Russia

    O. M. Razumnikova & N. V. Volf

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  1. O. M. Razumnikova
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  2. N. V. Volf
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Original Russian Text © O.M. Razumnikova, N.V. Volf, 2011, published in Fiziologiya Cheloveka, 2011, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 14–19.

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Razumnikova, O.M., Volf, N.V. Information processing specialization during interference between global and local aspects of visual hierarchical stimuli in men and women. Hum Physiol 37, 137–142 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119711020186

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