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

Further processing of auditory stimuli in the 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 use different strategies for processing spatial information. In this study, we examined sex-related differences in event-related potentials while men and women performed an auditory discrimination task in peripersonal space when either holding speakers or resting their hands in their laps. We found that men responded more accurately than women to targets in attended locations, and that the sexes exhibited different event-related potential patterns during task performance. These differences are consistent with existing predictions of female top-down and male bottom-up strategies in spatial processing.