TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex differences in the response to emotional distraction
T2 - An event-related fMRI investigation
AU - Iordan, Alexandru D.
AU - Dolcos, Sanda
AU - Denkova, Ekaterina
AU - Dolcos, Florin
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a Grant from the University Hospital Foundation and from start-up funds (to F.D.). The authors thank Keen Sung, Gloria Wong, Kristen Sabourin, and Kristina Suen for assistance with stimulus creation and data analysis, and DLab members for help with manuscript preparation.
PY - 2013/3
Y1 - 2013/3
N2 - Evidence has suggested that women have greater emotional reactivity than men. However, it is unclear whether these differences in basic emotional responses are also associated with differences in emotional distractibility, and what the neural mechanisms that implement differences in emotional distractibility between women and men are. Functional MRI recording was used in conjunction with a working memory (WM) task, with emotional distraction (angry faces) presented during the interval between the memoranda and the probes. First, we found an increased impact of emotional distraction among women in trials associated with high-confidence responses, in the context of overall similar WM performance in women and men. Second, women showed increased sensitivity to emotional distraction in brain areas associated with "hot" emotional processing, whereas men showed increased sensitivity in areas associated with "cold" executive processing, in the context of overall similar patterns of response to emotional distraction in women and men. Third, a sex-related dorsal-ventral hemispheric dissociation emerged in the lateral PFC related to coping with emotional distraction, with women showing a positive correlation with WM performance in left ventral PFC, and men showing similar effects in the right dorsal PFC. In addition to extending to men results that have previously been reported in women, by showing that both sexes engage mechanisms that are similar overall in response to emotional distraction, the present study identifies sex differences in both the response to and coping with emotional distraction. These results have implications for understanding sex differences in the susceptibility to affective disorders, in which basic emotional responses, emotional distractibility, and coping abilities are altered.
AB - Evidence has suggested that women have greater emotional reactivity than men. However, it is unclear whether these differences in basic emotional responses are also associated with differences in emotional distractibility, and what the neural mechanisms that implement differences in emotional distractibility between women and men are. Functional MRI recording was used in conjunction with a working memory (WM) task, with emotional distraction (angry faces) presented during the interval between the memoranda and the probes. First, we found an increased impact of emotional distraction among women in trials associated with high-confidence responses, in the context of overall similar WM performance in women and men. Second, women showed increased sensitivity to emotional distraction in brain areas associated with "hot" emotional processing, whereas men showed increased sensitivity in areas associated with "cold" executive processing, in the context of overall similar patterns of response to emotional distraction in women and men. Third, a sex-related dorsal-ventral hemispheric dissociation emerged in the lateral PFC related to coping with emotional distraction, with women showing a positive correlation with WM performance in left ventral PFC, and men showing similar effects in the right dorsal PFC. In addition to extending to men results that have previously been reported in women, by showing that both sexes engage mechanisms that are similar overall in response to emotional distraction, the present study identifies sex differences in both the response to and coping with emotional distraction. These results have implications for understanding sex differences in the susceptibility to affective disorders, in which basic emotional responses, emotional distractibility, and coping abilities are altered.
KW - Amygdala
KW - Dorsolateral/ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC/vlPFC)
KW - Emotional interference
KW - Fusiform face area (FFA)
KW - Social anxiety
KW - Subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC)
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U2 - 10.3758/s13415-012-0134-6
DO - 10.3758/s13415-012-0134-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 23293019
AN - SCOPUS:84873845946
SN - 1530-7026
VL - 13
SP - 116
EP - 134
JO - Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience
JF - Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience
IS - 1
ER -