The study, published in the journal, , examined the influence of gender, sexual orientation and whether we鈥檙e right-or-left-handed on our ability to recognize faces. It found that when memorizing and discriminating between faces, homosexual men show patterns of bilaterality 鈥� the usage of both sides of the brain 鈥� similar to heterosexual women. Heterosexual men tend to favour the right hemisphere for such tasks.

鈥淥ur results suggest that both gay men and heterosexual women code faces bilaterally. That allows for faster retrieval of stored information,鈥� says study lead author Jennifer Steeves, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, .

Study participants were asked to memorize photographs of ten faces, and differentiate them from 50 others, shown to them for only milliseconds each. The images were rendered in black and white and edited to remove ears, hair and blemishes, which can serve as obvious identifying cues. Participants then had to relay which faces were new, as quickly and accurately as possible.

Steeves and her colleagues also investigated the influence of hand dominance on such tasks. They found that left-handed heterosexual participants had better face recognition abilities than left-handed homosexuals, and also outperformed right-handed heterosexuals.

Hand dominance is thought to be linked with both hemispheric functioning and sexual orientation; previous studies have shown that homosexual individuals are 39 per cent more likely to be left-handed.

鈥淥ur findings are consistent with what we know about the organization and laterality of how we process faces depending on our gender, sexual orientation and handedness,鈥� Steeves says.

Anatomical studies of the corpus callosum, which facilitates communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, also indicate differences in handedness: women and left-handed men have been shown to possess larger corpus callosum and more symmetrical cortices than right-handed men.

鈥淭hese anatomical differences likely contribute to the more lateralized performance results seen among right-handed and heterosexual men,鈥� says Steeves.

The study, 鈥淪ex differences in face processing are mediated by handedness and sexual orientation,鈥� was co-authored by 91亚色 psychology graduate student Caitlin R. Mullin, and 91亚色 undergraduate psychology students Paul W. H. Brewster, and Roxana A. Dobrin.

By Melissa Hughes, media relations officer.

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Fifteen students will offer summaries of their research. The students come to the program from different backgrounds, including聽computer science, psychology, biology, and kinesiology聽& health science.

"This day marks the culmination of two years of intense neuroscience studies for our first group of students," says Professor Doug Crawford (left), and the program鈥檚 coordinator. "They are a wonderful group and I am extremely proud of them"

Today鈥檚 presentations cover a wide range of approaches to neuroscience, ranging聽from research on molecular and cellular mechanisms in nerve cells and the relationship between the elements of neural systems, to the study of behaviour of whole organisms.

Psychology Professors Shayna Rosenbaum and Kari Hoffman have been hard at work coordinating the聽Neuroscience Research Day. 鈥淲e began a neuroscience graduate diploma program at 91亚色 in 2008. It combines the interests of the psychology, biology, and kinesiology聽& health sciences program,鈥� says Rosenbaum. 鈥淭his is the end of the second year of the program, which is a two-year consecutive program that is done in conjunction with the graduate students鈥� home department and their degree. [They are given a diploma in addition to their degree.] While the Neuroscience Research Day program is focused on the students, the event is also聽a celebration of the wide range of research interests among our neuroscience research faculty.鈥�

Above: The class of 2010 and neuroscience faculty

The graduating students聽will be聽presenting a range of projects, says Rosenbaum, that draw聽on different methodologies.聽Some students will be showcasing work done using a聽molecular approach, while others聽will be presenting research that looks at聽neuroscience from a systems focus. Other students, says Rosenbaum, have relied on neuroimaging methods and some have done their research with patient populations.聽The breadth of projects that will be presented during the research day, says Rosenbaum, mirrors the program faculty's聽multidisciplinary approach to neuroscience.

Left: Shayna Rosenbaum

The following is a snapshot of some of the 15 research projects that will be presented today:

David Cappadocia (BSc Spec. Hons. 鈥�08), is a second-year master's student聽working with Crawford. Cappadocia聽will present on聽his research into聽how the brain remembers different features of an object, so that when it is time to act on the object, it can be discriminated from other similar objects.

Caitlin Mullin (MSc 鈥�08), a PhD student, is studying how different parts of the brain form representations of the visual world around us. Mullin is聽using transcranial magnetic stimulation to apply a brief magnetic pulse to a specific part of the brain. This temporarily deactivates the brain region, allowing Mullin to determine how it functions. Mullin聽is supervised by 91亚色 psychology Professor Jennifer Steeves.

PhD student Krista Kelly will present her research that looks into the effects of losing one eye early in life. Specifically, Kelly is researching how that loss affects brain organization and聽visual ability. Working under the supervision of Steeves, Kelly is using聽functional brain imaging to correlate findings with聽behavioural measures of performance.

Master's students Javaneh Tamiji (BSc Spec. Hons. 鈥�08) and Shannon Lozinsky are working with聽kinesiology Professor Dorota Crawford. They聽will present their research on the聽causes of autism, a disorder of the brain. Using state-of-the-art equipment funded by the , Tamiji and Lozinsky聽are investigating how聽environmental agents, such as drugs taken during early pregnancy, affect function and communication of cells in the brain. The goal of their project is to聽achieve a聽better understanding of聽what is different or missing in the brains of individuals with autism.

91亚色 PhD student Debi Stransky (BSc Spec. Hons. 鈥�06, MSc 鈥�08) is investigating stereoscopic聽depth perception across a large range of depth offsets under the supervision of 91亚色 psychology Professor Laurie Wilcox. There is convincing evidence that there is a separate depth processing mechanism for images that cannot be fused into a single percept.聽Stransky is determining the quality of depth perceived from such stimuli and if these percepts are subserved from distinct neural mechanisms. Her work is funded聽by a postgraduate fellowship from the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

91亚色 PhD student Inna Tsirlin (BSc Spec. Hons. 鈥�04, MSc 鈥�06) is studying聽depth perceptions from monocular occlusions. These are regions in a scene that are visible to one eye, but not to the other because they are occluded, for instance by objects in the foreground. For many years this information was considered noise. Tsirlin's work has shown that monocular occlusions help define the boundaries between objects and backgrounds, and can even provide quantitative depth information. Tsirlin is working聽under the supervision of Wilcox and her work is funded by a postgraduate fellowship from NSERC.

Left: Kari Hoffman

PhD student Stephanie Hornyak, who specializes in clinical neuropsychology, is investigating how brain regions communicate with each other to support spatial memory of well-known environments learned long ago. Under the supervision of 91亚色 psychology Professor Shayna Rosenbaum, she has used an innovative method of combining functional MRI with multivariate statistics, which will help predict how brain networks may break down in patients who suffer from spatial disorientation.

91亚色 master鈥檚 student Adrian Bartlett (BA Spec. Hons. 鈥�08) is studying how the eye movements we use to scan the environment may shape the neural basis of object recognition. Using spectral analysis of neuronal population activity, his research has revealed that eye movements help coordinate the activity of neurons, leading to a stronger, more efficient code of what we鈥檙e viewing, Bartlett is the recipient of an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship and is supervised by psychology Professor Kari Hoffman.

鈥淎ll the research being presented is very exciting and it is also an important聽year because 91亚色 has acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology,鈥� says Rosenbaum.聽鈥淭he day聽also聽offers students another forum for networking and will help them build future collaborations.鈥�

Everyone in the University community is invited to attend the presentations. The deans of the , and Graduate Studies will also give presentations.

For more information, visit the Neuroscience Graduate Diploma Web site.

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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