On the other hand, the face-specific N160 component was clearly lateralized differently in the men and women in our study. Indeed, a strong gender effect in the hemispheric lateralization of N1 component was observed, both in the latency and amplitude of cerebral response. This hemispheric asymmetry in men was not restricted to the processing of affective faces, and was significant in response to both neutral and distressed faces (see topographic maps in Fig. 6, displaying N1 scalp voltage distribution). Thus, a right hemispheric dominance is suggested for face processing in men but not in women. This may explain the many inconsistencies present in the relevant ERP and neuroimaging literature, which sometimes predicts a bilateral effect and other times a strong right-sided activity in regions devoted to face processing. These conclusions often rely on a mixed gender population, in which men and women are not necessarily equally represented (see Table 1).
