Department of Gerontology, Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, 3715 McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2012 Apr;7(4):476-84. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsr026. Epub 2011 May 23.
Recent research indicates gender differences in the impact of stress on decision behavior, but little is known about the brain mechanisms involved in these gender-specific stress effects. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine whether induced stress resulted in gender-specific patterns of brain activation during a decision task involving monetary reward. Specifically, we manipulated physiological stress levels using a cold pressor task, prior to a risky decision making task. Healthy men (n = 24, 12 stressed) and women (n = 23, 11 stressed) completed the decision task after either cold pressor stress or a control task during the period of cortisol response to the cold pressor. Gender differences in behavior were present in stressed participants but not controls, such that stress led to greater reward collection and faster decision speed in males but less reward collection and slower decision speed in females. A gender-by-stress interaction was observed for the dorsal striatum and anterior insula. With cold stress, activation in these regions was increased in males but decreased in females. The findings of this study indicate that the impact of stress on reward-related decision processing differs depending on gender.
最近的研究表明，压力对决策行为的影响存在性别差异，但对于涉及这些性别特定压力效应的大脑机制知之甚少。本研究使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来确定诱导的压力是否会导致在涉及金钱奖励的决策任务期间出现性别特异性的大脑激活模式。具体来说，我们在风险决策任务之前使用冷加压任务来操纵生理压力水平。健康男性（n=24，12 名应激）和女性（n=23，11 名应激）在冷加压期间或冷加压后的皮质醇反应期间完成决策任务后接受了冷加压应激或对照任务。在应激参与者中存在行为上的性别差异，但在对照组中则没有，例如，压力导致男性的奖励收集更多，决策速度更快，而女性的奖励收集更少，决策速度更慢。在背侧纹状体和前岛叶观察到性别-压力交互作用。在冷应激下，这些区域的激活在男性中增加，而在女性中减少。本研究的结果表明，压力对与奖励相关的决策处理的影响因性别而异。
