Axis 1. The language brain network modulated by sex?

Increasing evidence from clinical and developmental studies suggests that men and women have different language abilities and respond differently to brain damage, affecting the language network. Our main hypothesis is that these differences could be related to possible sex differences in the structural and functional characteristics of the brain language network.

The specific aims of the Axis 1 are to determine sex differences in:

• the functional network sustaining the brain language
• the characteristics of white matter fiber bundles connecting the core regions of the language network
• in the discourse features

The natural development of the proposed program in the next few years is to try to determine the specific effects of sex and gender on language functions and brain correlates.