Armony Jorge L, Sergerie Karine
Douglas Hospital Research Centre, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Neurosci Lett. 2007 Oct 9;426(1):1-5. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2007.08.032. Epub 2007 Aug 22.
The amygdala is known to be critical for the enhancement of memory for emotional, especially negative, material. Importantly, some researchers have suggested a sex-specific hemispheric lateralization in this process. In the case of facial expressions, another important factor that could influence memory success is the sex of the face, which could interact with the emotion depicted as well as with the sex of the perceiver. Whether this is the case remains unknown, as all previous studies of sex difference in emotional memory have employed affective pictures. Here we directly explored this question using functional magnetic resonance imaging in a subsequent memory paradigm for facial expressions (fearful, happy and neutral). Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that the hemispheric laterality of the amygdala involvement in successful memory for emotional material was influenced not only by the sex of the subjects, as previously proposed, but also by the sex of the faces being remembered. Namely, the left amygdala was more active for successfully remembered female fearful faces in women, whereas in men the right amygdala was more involved in memory for male fearful faces. These results confirm the existence of sex differences in amygdala lateralization in emotional memory but also demonstrate a subtle relationship between the observer and the stimulus in this process.
已知杏仁核对于增强对情感性（尤其是负面）材料的记忆至关重要。重要的是，一些研究人员提出在这个过程中存在性别特异性的半球侧化。就面部表情而言，另一个可能影响记忆效果的重要因素是面孔的性别，它可能与所描绘的情感以及感知者的性别相互作用。情况是否如此仍不清楚，因为之前所有关于情感记忆中性别差异的研究都使用了情感图片。在这里，我们在一个用于面部表情（恐惧、快乐和中性）的后续记忆范式中，使用功能磁共振成像直接探究了这个问题。与我们的假设一致，我们发现杏仁核参与情感材料成功记忆的半球侧化不仅如先前所提出的那样受到被试性别的影响，还受到所记忆面孔性别的影响。也就是说，女性中左侧杏仁核对成功记忆的女性恐惧面孔更活跃，而在男性中右侧杏仁核更多地参与对男性恐惧面孔的记忆。这些结果证实了情感记忆中杏仁核侧化存在性别差异，但也证明了在此过程中观察者与刺激之间存在微妙的关系。
