Zheng Luming, Genç Zehra Nur, Baumann Valentin, van der Ham Ineke, Schomaker Judith
Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
Hum Nat. 2025 Jun;36(2):219-237. doi: 10.1007/s12110-025-09492-y. Epub 2025 May 29.
Previous work has suggested that males and females adopt different exploration styles, with females often taking a more secure, or cautious exploration approach. However, exploration behavior is multi-faceted, and previous studies often investigated only specific aspects of it. As a result, sex differences in exploration remain vaguely defined, and it currently remains unclear when differences develop. In the current study, females (n = 206) and males (n = 218) aged 7-77 years explored a 3D virtual environment. First, we computed a series of exploration measures that are commonly used in the animal literature (including roaming entropy, distance traveled, shape of exploration and exploratory efficiency). Taking a fine-grained approach, based on a hierarchical cluster analysis we identified three distinct measures of exploration: (1) Exploratory activity; (2) Exploratory efficiency; (3) Shape of exploration. We investigated whether these distinct aspects capture individual differences- between sexes and across the lifespan- in exploration behavior. Males were found to explore more than females, as evidenced by higher exploratory activity and a more complex shape of exploration. Interestingly, however, females explored more efficiently than males. No interaction between age and sex was observed, suggesting that the effect remains stable across the lifespan. These findings suggest that even though women show more caution when exploring an unknown environment, they are more efficient in charting it. Our novel fine-grained exploratory behavior analyses further suggested that older individuals had a simpler exploration shape- as defined by lower sinuosity/tortuosity in their path- than younger individuals, while other exploration measures were not affected by age. The current novel findings thus suggest that specific characteristics of exploration behavior depend on individual differences, including sex and age. Previous work has suggested that exploration behavior is affected in several neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g., in schizophrenia), and our measures of exploration could potentially be used to characterize unique aspects of these disorders, and serve as cognitive markers.
先前的研究表明，男性和女性采用不同的探索方式，女性通常采取更稳健或谨慎的探索方法。然而，探索行为是多方面的，而先前的研究往往只调查了其中的特定方面。因此，探索行为中的性别差异仍未明确界定，目前尚不清楚这些差异何时出现。在本研究中，206名7至77岁的女性和218名同龄男性探索了一个3D虚拟环境。首先，我们计算了一系列动物研究文献中常用的探索指标（包括漫游熵、行进距离、探索形状和探索效率）。基于层次聚类分析，我们采用细粒度方法确定了三种不同的探索指标：（1）探索活动；（2）探索效率；（3）探索形状。我们研究了这些不同方面是否能捕捉到探索行为中性别之间以及整个生命周期内的个体差异。结果发现，男性的探索行为比女性更多，表现为更高的探索活动和更复杂的探索形状。然而，有趣的是，女性的探索效率比男性更高。未观察到年龄与性别的交互作用，这表明这种影响在整个生命周期内保持稳定。这些发现表明，尽管女性在探索未知环境时表现得更为谨慎，但她们在绘制环境地图方面更有效率。我们新颖的细粒度探索行为分析进一步表明，与年轻个体相比，年长个体的探索形状更简单——以路径中较低的曲折度来定义——而其他探索指标不受年龄影响。因此，当前的新发现表明，探索行为的特定特征取决于个体差异，包括性别和年龄。先前的研究表明，探索行为在几种神经精神疾病（如精神分裂症）中会受到影响，我们的探索指标可能潜在地用于刻画这些疾病的独特方面，并作为认知标志物。
