Caseras Xavier, Mataix-Cols David, An Suk Kyoon, Lawrence Natalia S, Speckens Anne, Giampietro Vincent, Brammer Michael J, Phillips Mary L
Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, United Kingdom.
Biol Psychiatry. 2007 Sep 1;62(5):464-71. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.10.030. Epub 2007 Feb 16.
A majority of patients with disgust-related psychiatric disorders such as animal phobias and contamination-related obsessive-compulsive disorder are women. The aim of this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to examine possible sex differences in neural responses to disgust-inducing stimuli that might help explain this female predominance.
Thirty-four healthy adult volunteers (17 women, all right-handed) were scanned while viewing alternating blocks of disgusting and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System. Using a partially-silent fMRI sequence, the participants rated their level of discomfort after each block of pictures. Skin conductance responses (SCR) were measured throughout the experiment. All participants completed the Disgust Scale.
Both women and men reported greater subjective discomfort and showed more SCR fluctuations during the disgusting picture blocks than during the neutral picture blocks. Women and men also demonstrated a similar pattern of brain response to disgusting compared with neutral pictures, showing activation in the anterior insula, ventrolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, and visual regions. Compared with men, women had significantly higher disgust sensitivity scores, experienced more subjective discomfort, and demonstrated greater activity in left ventrolateral prefrontal regions. However, these differences were no longer significant when disgust sensitivity scores were controlled for.
In healthy adult volunteers, there are significant sex-related differences in brain responses to disgusting stimuli that are irrevocably linked to greater disgust sensitivity scores in women. The implications for disgust-related psychiatric disorders are discussed.
大多数患有与厌恶相关的精神疾病（如动物恐惧症和与污染相关的强迫症）的患者为女性。这项功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究的目的是检查对厌恶诱导刺激的神经反应中可能存在的性别差异，这可能有助于解释这种女性占主导的现象。
34名健康成年志愿者（17名女性，均为右利手）在观看来自国际情感图片系统的恶心和中性图片交替组块时接受扫描。使用部分静音的fMRI序列，参与者在每组图片后对自己的不适程度进行评分。在整个实验过程中测量皮肤电传导反应（SCR）。所有参与者都完成了厌恶量表。
与观看中性图片组块相比，女性和男性在观看恶心图片组块时均报告了更大的主观不适，且SCR波动更大。与观看中性图片相比，女性和男性对恶心图片的大脑反应模式也相似，表现为前脑岛、腹外侧和背外侧前额叶皮质以及视觉区域的激活。与男性相比，女性的厌恶敏感性得分显著更高，经历了更多的主观不适，并且在左侧腹外侧前额叶区域表现出更大的活动。然而，在控制了厌恶敏感性得分后，这些差异不再显著。
在健康成年志愿者中，大脑对厌恶刺激的反应存在显著的性别相关差异，这与女性更高的厌恶敏感性得分有着不可分割的联系。文中讨论了这些差异对与厌恶相关的精神疾病的影响。
