Sex differences in auditory processing in peripersonal space: an event-related potential study

Further processing of auditory stimuli in free-field is attenuated when participants are in contact with speakers versus not touching them. Studies in the visual domain have found that men and women utilize different strategies for processing spatial information. In the current study, we examined sex-related differences in event-related potentials (ERPs) while men and women performed an auditory discrimination task in peri-personal space when either holding speakers or resting their hands in their laps. We found that males responded more accurately than females to targets in attended locations, and that the sexes exhibited different ERP patterns during task performance. These differences are consistent with existing predictions of female top-down and male bottom-up strategies in spatial processing.