Church Leah D, Bounoua Nadia, Bhattiprolu Kavya, Merker Julia, Spielberg Jeffrey M
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, United States.
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2025 Jun 26;74:101588. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2025.101588.
Internalizing disorders are the leading cause of disability worldwide. Despite this public health crisis, borne disproportionately by female adolescents, specific neural mechanisms driving these differences remain unclear. The present study investigated sex differences in the neural circuitry underlying emotion regulation in a community sample of 180 early adolescents (M= 12.03 years; 54.4 % female). Participants were instructed to either react naturally or regulate their affective responses to negative or neutral stimuli. Voxelwise analyses revealed a significant 3-way interaction between sex, regulation (e.g., regulate vs. react), and stimulus valence (e.g., negative vs. neutral) in bilateral middle/medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and right amygdala. Specifically, female adolescents recruited bilateral OFC when asked to regulate their responses to aversive images. Recruitment of left (but not right) OFC was greater for male adolescents than female adolescents when regulating their responses to neutral stimuli. Finally, greater deactivation of right MFG was found when female adolescents reacted naturally to aversive stimuli, relative to male adolescents. These regions play critical roles in cognitive processes involved in emotion regulation. Our identification of sex-specific mechanisms supporting affective processes in early adolescents may reflect risk factors that can be intervened upon before the crystallization of internalizing pathology.
内化性障碍是全球致残的主要原因。尽管存在这一公共卫生危机，且女性青少年受其影响的比例过高，但导致这些差异的具体神经机制仍不清楚。本研究在一个由180名青少年早期个体（平均年龄M = 12.03岁；54.4%为女性）组成的社区样本中，调查了情绪调节潜在神经回路中的性别差异。参与者被要求要么自然反应，要么调节他们对负面或中性刺激的情感反应。体素分析显示，在双侧中/内侧眶额皮质（OFC）、右侧额中回（MFG）和右侧杏仁核中，性别、调节方式（如调节与反应）和刺激效价（如负面与中性）之间存在显著的三因素交互作用。具体而言，当被要求调节对厌恶图像的反应时，女性青少年会激活双侧OFC。在调节对中性刺激的反应时，男性青少年比女性青少年更多地激活左侧（而非右侧）OFC。最后，相对于男性青少年，当女性青少年对厌恶刺激自然反应时，右侧MFG的失活程度更大。这些区域在参与情绪调节的认知过程中起关键作用。我们对支持青少年早期情感过程的性别特异性机制的识别，可能反映了在内化性病理形成之前可以进行干预的风险因素。
