Garcia-Garcia Manuel, Domínguez-Borràs Judith, SanMiguel Iria, Escera Carles
Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, P. Vall d'Hebron 171, 08035 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Biol Psychol. 2008 Dec;79(3):307-16. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2008.07.006. Epub 2008 Aug 5.
Gender differences in brain activity while processing emotional stimuli have been demonstrated by neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies. However, the possible differential effects of emotion on attentional mechanisms between women and men are less understood. The present study aims to elucidate any gender differences in the modulation of unexpected auditory stimulus processing using an emotional context elicited by aversive images. Fourteen men and fourteen women performed a well-established auditory-visual distraction paradigm in which distraction was elicited by novel stimuli within a neutral or negative emotional context induced by images from the IAPS. Response time increased after unexpected novel sounds as a behavioral effect of distraction, and this increase was larger for women, but not for men, within the negative emotional context. Novelty-P3 was also modulated by the emotional context for women but not for men. These results reveal stronger novelty processing in women than in men during a threatening situation.
神经影像学和电生理研究已经证实了在处理情绪刺激时大脑活动存在性别差异。然而，情绪对男性和女性注意力机制可能产生的不同影响却鲜为人知。本研究旨在通过厌恶图像引发的情绪背景，阐明在意外听觉刺激处理的调节过程中是否存在性别差异。14名男性和14名女性参与了一个成熟的视听分心范式实验，在该实验中，分心由国际情绪图片系统（IAPS）图像所营造的中性或负面情绪背景中的新异刺激引发。作为分心的行为效应，意外的新异声音出现后反应时间增加，并且在负面情绪背景下，女性的这种增加幅度大于男性，而男性则不然。对于女性而言，新颖性P3也受到情绪背景的调节，而男性则没有。这些结果表明，在威胁情境中，女性比男性具有更强的新颖性处理能力。
