Gender differences in pre-attentive change detection for visual but not auditory stimuli.
OBJECTIVE
Despite ongoing debate about gender differences in pre-attention processes, little is known about gender effects on change detection for auditory and visual stimuli. We explored gender differences in change detection while processing duration information in auditory and visual modalities.


METHOD
We investigated pre-attentive processing of duration information using a deviant-standard reverse oddball paradigm (50 ms/150 ms) for auditory and visual mismatch negativity (aMMN and vMMN) in males and females (n=21/group).


RESULT
In the auditory modality, decrement and increment aMMN were observed at 150-250 ms after the stimulus onset, and there was no significant gender effect on MMN amplitudes in temporal or fronto-central areas. In contrast, in the visual modality, only increment vMMN was observed at 180-260 ms after the onset of stimulus, and it was higher in males than in females.


CONCLUSION
No gender effect was found in change detection for auditory stimuli, but change detection was facilitated for visual stimuli in males.


SIGNIFICANCE
Gender effects should be considered in clinical studies of pre-attention for visual stimuli.
['Yang|Xiuxian|X|', 'Yu|Yunmiao|Y|', 'Chen|Lu|L|', 'Sun|Hailian|H|', 'Qiao|Zhengxue|Z|', 'Qiu|Xiaohui|X|', 'Zhang|Congpei|C|', 'Wang|Lin|L|', 'Zhu|Xiongzhao|X|', 'He|Jincai|J|', 'Zhao|Lun|L|', 'Yang|Yanjie|Y|']
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation D000328:Adult D001288:Attention D001307:Auditory Perception D004569:Electroencephalography D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D010775:Photic Stimulation D011930:Reaction Time D012727:Sex Characteristics D014796:Visual Perception D055815:Young Adult
Gender Pre-attentive processing Auditory MMN Visual MMN