Previous work has provided preliminary indication of sex-related functional asymmetry of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in social and emotional functions and complex decision-making. Findings have been inconsistent, and based on small numbers of patients. Given the rarity of these neurological cases, replicable results across studies are important to build evidence for sex-related functional asymmetry of the vmPFC. Here we used a sample of sixteen neurological patients with unilateral damage to the left or right vmPFC and examined differences between men and women on a task that probed decision-making under risk or decision-making under ambiguity. We found that men with right-hemisphere vmPFC damage and women with left-hemisphere vmPFC damage demonstrated significantly reduced aversion to risk and ambiguity. Men with damage to the left vmPFC and women with damage to the right vmPFC showed aversion to risk and ambiguity comparable to participants with left or right-sided brain damage outside the vmPFC, and to comparison participants without brain damage. Our results add to previous findings of sex-related functional asymmetry of the vmPFC in decision-making. Our study also replicates findings of no observable behavioral differences between men and women without neurological damage on tests of decision-making. This pattern of neurobiological divergence but behavioral convergence between men and women may reflect a complex interplay of neuroendocrine, developmental, and psychosocial factors.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 30 April 2021.
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