Journal
NEUROSCIENCE BULLETIN
Volume 37, Issue 2, Pages 201-216Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s12264-020-00588-2
Keywords
Sex difference; Gender role; Emotional susceptibility; Event-related potential; Machine learning
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31671164, 31970980, 31971018]
- Guangdong Key Basic Research Grant [2018B030332001]
- Shenzhen Basic Research Project [JCYJ20180305124305294]
- Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science [2019SHIBS0003]
- Shenzhen Education Science Program [ybzz19014]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The impact of gender role rather than biological sex on emotional susceptibility has been demonstrated in this study, with feminine-specific effects identified in brain neural responses, correlating with feminine score and localized in specific brain regions. Machine learning analyses showed that the brainwave amplitudes of feminine subjects reliably discriminated the intensity of different emotional stimuli.
It is unknown whether the famous sex-related difference in emotion processing is accounted for by biological sex, gender role, or their interaction. To clarify the issue, in Study 1 we recorded event-related potentials in response to negative and positive images of diverse intensities when 47 masculine (26 males) and 47 feminine (22 males) subjects performed a non-emotional task. The occipital P1 and N1 amplitudes were larger in women than in men, while feminine subjects showed larger N1 amplitudes than masculine subjects, regardless of sex. Moreover, feminine subjects showed enhanced frontocentral N2 (210-270 ms) amplitudes for highly and mildly negative than for neutral stimuli, while masculine subjects showed an emotion effect only for highly negative stimuli. The feminine-specific effect for mildly negative stimuli was positively correlated to the feminine score, and this correlation was located to the anterior cingulate and the superior and medial frontal gyri. Furthermore, feminine but not masculine subjects showed enhanced parietal P3 (330-560 ms) amplitudes for highly and mildly positive than for neutral stimuli, an effect positively related to the feminine score and localized to the precuneus, posterior cingulate, and superior temporal gyrus. Machine learning analyses verified that single-trial N2 and P3 amplitudes of feminine subjects reliably discriminated the intensity of negative and positive stimuli, respectively. For ecological considerations, in Study 2 we used an observational approach (n = 300) and confirmed that feminine gender role, rather than biological sex, predicted individual differences in daily experience of emotion-related psychopathological symptoms. These findings provide solid evidence for the critical impact of gender role rather than sex on emotional susceptibility.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available