Correlates of virtual navigation performance in older adults.

Despite considerable evidence for deleterious effects of aging on place learning and memory, less is known about the trajectory and the putative neural mechanisms of these decrements. The virtual Morris water task (vMWT) is a human analog of a nonhuman spatial navigation task. The present study investigated longitudinal changes in place learning in 51 healthy, nondemented adults (age 30-83 years) who completed the vMWT and a neuropsychological battery at 2 time-points (interval = ∼8 years).

Contributions of sex, testosterone, and androgen receptor CAG repeat number to virtual Morris water maze performance.

The possibility that androgens contribute to the male advantage typically found on measures of spatial cognition has been investigated using a variety of approaches. To date, evidence to support the notion that androgens affect spatial cognition in healthy young adults is somewhat equivocal. The present study sought to clarify the association between testosterone (T) and spatial performance by extending measurements of androgenicity to include both measures of circulating T as well as an androgen receptor-specific genetic marker.

Brain activation patterns in women with acquired hypoactive sexual desire disorder and women with normal sexual function: a cross-sectional pilot study.

Objective: To examine and compare brain activation patterns of premenopausal women with normal sexual function and those with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) during viewing of validated sexually explicit film clips.

Design: Cross-sectional pilot study.

Setting: University-based clinical research center.

Sex differences and similarities in married couples: patterns across and within cultures.

In this study, we examined the patterns of sex differences in men and women married to each other in five cultures (China, Russia, Turkey, UK, and the U.S.) to look for universal patterns in behavioral dimorphisms and for cultural variability in those patterns.

The relationship between second to fourth digit ratio, spatial cognition, and virtual navigation.

Studies in human and non-human animals have found that early life exposure to androgens may affect later spatial performance. Recent studies have suggested that the ratio of the second to fourth digit (2D:4D) may serve as an index of prenatal androgen exposure. Some studies have found that the 2D:4D ratio predicts adult spatial performance, although the nature of the relationship is equivocal.