Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr 29;13(5):740.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci13050740.

Reversal Training Discloses Gender Differences in a Spatial Memory Task in Humans

Laura Tascón  1 , Irene León  2 , Rubén Fernández  3 , José Manuel Cimadevilla  4   5
Affiliations

Reversal Training Discloses Gender Differences in a Spatial Memory Task in Humans

Laura Tascón et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Over the past few years, spatial memory has been studied using virtual-reality-based tasks. Reversal learning has been widely used in spatial orientation tasks for testing, among other things, new learning and flexibility. By means of a reversal-learning protocol, we assessed spatial memory in men and women. A total of sixty participants (half of them women) performed a task that included two phases: during the acquisition phase, participants were asked to find one or three rewarded positions in the virtual room across ten trials. During the reversal phase, the rewarded boxes were moved to a new position and maintained for four trials. The results showed that men and women differed in the reversal phase, with men outperforming women in high demanding conditions. Dissimilarities in several cognitive abilities between both genders are the base of these differences and are discussed.

Keywords: dimorphism; flexibility; hippocampus; sex differences; virtual reality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of errors committed by men and women in the one reward condition. The asymptotic level was reached in the 3rd trial. The location of the rewarded box was changed in trial 11. Participants reached the asymptotic in trial 12. Mean ± SEM.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Time spent by men and women in one reward condition. The asymptotic level was reached in the 3rd trial. The location of the rewarded box was changed in trial 11. Afterwards, the asymptotic level was reached in trial 12. Mean ± SEM.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of errors committed by men and women in the three rewards condition. The asymptotic level was reached in trial 4. The location of the rewarded boxes was changed in trial 11, where men outperformed women. After changing the location, the asymptotic level was reached in the 3rd trial (trial 13). Mean ± SEM.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Time spent by men and women in the three rewards condition. The location of the rewarded boxes was moved in trial 11. Men spent shorter time than women after changing the target. Mean ± SEM.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Zenithal view of the virtual room and the places selected by the participants in both difficulty conditions. (A) Positions selected by men and women in trials 10th to 14th. Boxes are colored according to the percentage of visits. For one reward condition only the first selected position is represented. For three rewards condition the first three selections are represented for each participant. Rewarded boxes were marked with an oblique line. (B) Caption about percentage of visits. (C) Schema about the room orientation and cues available.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Madl T., Chen K., Montaldi D., Trappl R. Computational cognitive models of spatial memory in navigation space: A review. Neural Netw. 2015;65:18–43. doi: 10.1016/j.neunet.2015.01.002. - DOI - PubMed
    1. O’Keefe J., Dostrovsky J. The hippocampus as a spatial map. Preliminary evidence from unit activity in the freely-moving rat. Brain Res. 1971;34:171–175. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(71)90358-1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Herweg N.A., Kahana M.J. Spatial Representations in the Human Brain. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 2018;12:297. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00297. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fritch H.A., Spets D.S., Slotnick S.D. Functional connectivity with the anterior and posterior hippocampus during spatial memory. Hippocampus. 2021;31:658–668. doi: 10.1002/hipo.23283. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Uddin L.Q. Cognitive and behavioural flexibility: Neural mechanisms and clinical considerations. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 2021;22:167–179. doi: 10.1038/s41583-021-00428-w. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources