Very few developmental imaging studies had the power to test for age by sex interactions. Two fMRI studies show that gender differences in activation may be the result of underlying differences in the functional development of these sex-dimorphic regions. A developmental imaging study of attention allocation in an oddball task across the age range of 13–38 years, showed that females had sex-specific age correlations in right fronto-striato-temporal regions—that were enhanced in activation in all females relative to all males—while males had male-specific age correlations in left medial temporo-parietal areas that were increased in activation in all males relative to all females, independently of age [35]. Strikingly similar findings of female-exclusive age correlations in inferior and medial prefrontal regions and of male-exclusive age correlations in superior parietal and temporal regions were observed for the same group of subjects in the age range of 13–38 years during interference inhibition and switching [28]. Similarly, the sex-specific age-correlated activations overlapped with sex-dimorphic activation patterns. Together, the findings suggest that sex differences in the recruitment of frontal (increased in females) and parietal areas (increased in
