Sex differences in cerebral processing of visuospatial tasks.

Summary Males and females with left or right cerebral damage were given tests designed to assess language and visuospatial abilities. Speech disturbances were more severe after left- than right-sided lesions, whereas spatial deficit were worse in the right than left-damaged group. Spatial impairment was greatest in males with right-hemisphere lesions, suggesting that the right hemisphere may be more specialized for spatial processes in men than in women. The correlation between verbal scores and block-design scores was significant only for females with left-hemisphere damage, suggesting that women make more use of verbal mediation in traditionally designated nonverbal tasks than do males.