Supplementary Material for: Gender and Rapid Alterations of Hemispheric Dominance during Planning

Background: Mental planning and carrying out a plan provoke specific cerebral hemodynamic responses. Gender aspects of hemispheric laterality using rapid cerebral hemodynamics have not been reported. Method: Here, we applied functional transcranial Doppler sonography to examine lateralization of cerebral hemodynamics of the middle cerebral arteries of 28 subjects (14 women and 14 men) performing a standard planning task. There were easy and difficult problems, and mental planning without motor activity was separated from movement execution. Results: Difficult mental planning elicited lateralization to the right hemisphere after 2 or more seconds, a feature that was not observed during movement execution. In females, there was a dominance to the left hemisphere during movement execution. Optimized problem solving yielded an increased laterality change to the right during mental planning. Conclusions: Gender-related hemispheric dominance appears to be condition-dependent, and change of laterality to the right may play a role in optimized performance. Results are of relevance when considering laterality from a perspective of performance enhancement of higher cognitive functions, and also of psychiatric disorders with cognitive dysfunctions and abnormal lateralization patterns such as schizophrenia.背景：心理规划与计划执行可诱发特异性脑血流动力学反应。目前尚未有基于快速脑血流动力学手段开展的半球偏侧化性别差异相关研究报道。 方法：本研究采用功能性经颅多普勒超声（functional transcranial Doppler sonography），对28名完成标准化规划任务的受试者（14名女性、14名男性）的大脑中动脉脑血流动力学偏侧化特征进行检测。实验设置了简易与困难两类任务，并将无运动参与的心理规划环节与运动执行环节进行分离。 结果：难度较高的心理规划任务在任务启动2秒及以上后，会诱发右侧半球偏侧化，这一特征在运动执行环节中未被观察到。在女性受试者中，运动执行阶段呈现左侧半球优势。优化后的问题解决策略可使心理规划阶段的右侧半球偏侧化变化程度显著提升。 结论：与性别相关的半球偏侧优势呈现任务依赖性，而右侧半球偏侧化的转变可能在优化的任务表现中发挥作用。本研究结果对于从提升高级认知功能表现的视角探讨半球偏侧化，以及针对存在认知功能障碍与偏侧化模式异常的精神疾病（如精神分裂症）的相关研究均具有参考价值。