Healthy children show gender differences in correlations between nonverbal cognitive ability and brain activation during visual perception

• We examined the brain activation of 121 healthy children using fMRI.
• Nonverbal ability was positively correlated with the right TPJ activation in DMS.
• Children show gender differences in brain activation of rTPJ during visual perception.
• The correlation between nonverbal ability and rTPJ activation was more robust in boys.

Humans perceive textual and nontextual information in visual perception, and both depend on language. In childhood education, students exhibit diverse perceptual abilities, such that some students process textual information better and some process nontextual information better. These predispositions involve many factors, including cognitive ability and learning preference. However, the relationship between verbal and nonverbal cognitive abilities and brain activation during visual perception has not yet been examined in children. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the relationship between nonverbal and verbal cognitive abilities and brain activation during nontextual visual perception in large numbers of children. A significant positive correlation was found between nonverbal cognitive abilities and brain activation in the right temporoparietal junction, which is thought to be related to attention reorienting. This significant positive correlation existed only in boys. These findings suggested that male brain activation differed from female brain activation, and that this depended on individual cognitive processes, even if there was no gender difference in behavioral performance.