Abstract
With each of the tasks in the present studies we expected to find the reported sex difference between heterosexual women and heterosexual men and we predicted a sexual orientation effect with the performance of homosexual men being similar to that of heterosexual women and different from that of heterosexual men. Study I aimed to replicate earlier findings by recording the performance of a group of homosexual men on a visuospatial task, the Vincent Mechanical Diagrams Test (VMDT), a dot detection divided visual field measure of functional cerebral asymmetry, and on five subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). For each task the profile of scores obtained for the homosexual men was similar to that of heterosexual women in that they scored lower than heterosexual men on the VMDT, they showed less asymmetry, and they recorded a higher Verbal than Performance IQ on the WAIS. In Study 2, a male-biased targeted throwing task favored heterosexual men while, in contrast, on the female-biased Purdue Pegboard single peg condition heterosexual men were outperformed by heterosexual women and homosexual men. On neither of these two tasks did the performances of homosexual men and heterosexual women differ. One task, manual speed, yielded neither sex nor sexual orientation differences. Another, the Purdue Pegboard assemblies condition, revealed a sex difference but no sexual orientation difference. Failure to obtain a sexual orientation difference in the presence of a sex difference suggests that the sexual orientation effect may be restricted to a subset of sexually dimorphic tasks.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Caplan, P. J., MacPherson, G. M., and Tobin, P. (1985). Do sex-related differences in spatial abilities exist? Am. Psychol. 40: 786–799.
Davidoff, J. B. (1977). Hemispheric differences in dot detection. Cortex 13: 434–444.
Eals, M., and Silverman, T. (1994). The hunter-gatherer theory of spatial sex differences: Proximate factors mediating the female advantage in the recall of object arrays. Ethol. Sociobiol. 15: 95–105.
Fairweather, H. (1982). Sex differences. In Beaumont, J. G. (ed.), Divided Visual Field Studies of Cerebral Organization, Academic Press, London.
Gladue, B. A., and Bailey, M. J. (1995). Spatial ability, handedness, and human sexual orientation. Psychoneuroendocrinology 20: 487–497.
Gladue, B. A., Beatty, W. W., Larson, J., and Staton, R. D. (1990). Sexual orientation and spatial ability in men and women. Psychobiology 18: 101–108.
Hahn, W. K. (1987). Cerebral lateralization of function: From infancy through childhood. Psychol. Bull. 101: 376–392.
Hall, J. A. Y., and Kimura, D. (1995). Sexual orientation and performance on sexually dimorphic motor tasks. Arch. Sex. Behav. 24: 395–407.
Halpern, D. F. (1992). Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities, 2nd ed., Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
Hampson, E., and Kimura, D. (1988). Reciprocal effects of hormonal fluctuations on human motor and perceptual-spatial skills. Behav. Neurosci. 102: 456–459.
Harris, A. J. (1974). Harris Tests of Lateral Dominance, 3rd ed., Psychological Corp., New York.
Hyde, J. S. and Linn, M. C. (1988). Gender differences in verbal ability: A meta-analysis. Psychol. Bull. 104: 53–69.
Kimura, D. (1996). Sex, sexual orientation and sex hormones influence human cognitive function. Cur. Opinion Neurobiol. 6: 259–263.
Levy, J. (1969). Possible basis for the evolution of lateral specialization of the human brain. Nature 224: 612–615.
Maccoby, E. E., and Jacklin, C. N. (1974). The Psychology of Sex Differences, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
McCormick, C. M., and Witelson, S. F. (1991). A cognitive profile of homosexual men compared to heterosexual men and women. Psychoneuroendocrinology 16: 459–473.
McGlone, J. (1980). Sex differences in human brain asymmetry: A critical survey. Behav. Brain Sci. 3: 215–263.
Maxwell, A. E. (1960). Obtaining factor scores on the WAIS. J. Ment. Sci. 160: 1060–1062.
Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L. (1984). Psychoendocrine research on sexual orientation. Current status and future options. Prog. Brain Res. 61: 375–398.
Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. L., Ehrhardt, A. A., Rosen, L. R., Gruen, R. S., Veridiano, N. P., Vann, F. H., and Neuwalder, H. F. (1995). Prenatal estrogens and the development of homosexual orientation. Dev. Psychol. 31: 12–21.
NFER. (1980). National Institute of Industrial Psychology Engineering Test Battery, Nelson, Windsor, U.K.
Reite, M., Sheeder, J., Richardson, D., and Teale, P. (1995) Cerebral laterality in homosexual males: Preliminary communication using magnetoencephalography. Arch. Sex. Behav. 24: 585–593.
Reite, M., Sheeder, J., Teale, P., Richardson, D., Adams, M., and Simon, J. (1995). MEG-based laterality: Sex differences in normal adults. Neuropsychologia 33: 1607–1616.
Reite, M., Teale, P., Goldstein, L., Whalen, J., and Linnville, S. (1989). Late auditory sources may differ in the left hemisphere of schizophrenic patients: A preliminary report. Arch. Gen. Psychiat. 46: 565–572.
Sambrooks, J. E., and MacCulloch, M. J. (1973). A modification of the sexual orientation method and an automated technique for presentation and scoring. Br. J. Soc. Clin. Psychol. 12: 163–174.
Sanders, G., and Ross-Field, L. (1986a). Sexual orientation and visuospatial ability. Brain Cognit. 5: 280–290.
Sanders, G., and Ross-Field, L. (1986b). Sexual orientation, cognitive abilities and cerebral asymmetry: A review and a hypothesis tested. Ital. J. Zool. 20: 459–470.
Sanders, G., and Ross-Field, L. (1987). Neuropsychological development of cognitive abilities: A new research strategy and some preliminary evidence for a sexual orientation model. Int. J. Neurosci. 36: 1–16.
Shaywitz, B. A., Shaywitz, S. E., Pugh, K. R., Constable, R. T., Skudlarski, P., Fulbright, R. K., Bronen, R. A., Fletcher, J. M., Shankweiller, D. P., Katz, L., and Gore, J. C. (1995). Sex differences in the functional organization of the brain for language. Nature 373: 607–609.
Signorella, M., and Jamison, W. (1986). Masculinity, femininity, androgeny, and cognitive performance: A meta-analysis. Psychol. Bull. 100: 207–228.
Silverman, I., and Eals, M. (1992). Sex differences in spatial abilities: evolutionary theory and data. In Barlow, J. H., Cosmides, L., and Tooby, J. (eds.), The Adapted Mind, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 533–549.
Tiffin, T. (1968). Purdue Pegboard Examiner Manual, Science Research Associates, Chicago.
Tkachuk, J., and Zucker, K. J. (1991, June). The relation among sexual orientation, spatial ability, handedness, and recalled childhood gender identity in women and men. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the International Academy for Sex Research.
Tuttle, G. E., and Pillard, R. C. (1991). Sexual orientation and cognitive abilities. Arch. Sex. Behav. 20: 307–318.
Watson, N. V., and Kimura, D. (1991). Nontrivial sex differences in throwing and intercepting: relation to psychometrically-defined spatial functions. Pers. Indiv. Diff. 12: 375–385.
Wilmott, M., and Brierley, H. (1984). Cognitive characteristics and homosexuality. Arch. Sex. Behav. 13: 311–319.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sanders, G., Wright, M. Sexual Orientation Differences in Cerebral Asymmetry and in the Performance of Sexually Dimorphic Cognitive and Motor Tasks. Arch Sex Behav 26, 463–480 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024551704723
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024551704723