Developmental Changes in Visual Line Bisection in Women Throughout Adulthood

Abstract

It has been suggested that some hemispheric asymmetries change in a systematic way from young adulthood to older age. However, little is known whether these changes are due to differential aging of a single hemisphere or based on age-related alterations of interhemispheric interactions. A sample of 281 right-handed neurologically healthy participants (151 women), ranging from age 20 to 79, was investigated with a line-bisection task. Previous studies indicate the midpoint estimation shows a consistent leftward bias from the veridical center, which is accentuated when the left hand is used to bisect lines. These findings support the view of a right hemispheric superiority in spatial attention. This study revealed this pattern to be stable in men throughout adulthood. However, women from 50 to 69 years of age showed a reduced leftward bias and a reduced hand effect compared to men and younger women. The results suggest that developmental changes in hemispheric asymmetry of spatial attention are more pronounced in women and support the view that neuromorphological changes during adulthood differ between sexes.