Sex differences in neural and behavioral signatures of cooperation revealed by fNIRS hyperscanning

Baker, Liu, Cui, Vrticka, Saggar, Hosseini, Reiss (2016) Sex differences in neural and behavioral signatures of cooperation revealed by fNIRS hyperscanning Sci Rep (IF: 4.6) 6 26492
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Abstract

Researchers from multiple fields have sought to understand how sex moderates human social behavior. While over 50 years of research has revealed differences in cooperation behavior of males and females, the underlying neural correlates of these sex differences have not been explained. A missing and fundamental element of this puzzle is an understanding of how the sex composition of an interacting dyad influences the brain and behavior during cooperation. Using fNIRS-based hyperscanning in 111 same- and mixed-sex dyads, we identified significant behavioral and neural sex-related differences in association with a computer-based cooperation task. Dyads containing at least one male demonstrated significantly higher behavioral performance than female/female dyads. Individual males and females showed significant activation in the right frontopolar and right inferior prefrontal cortices, although this activation was greater in females compared to males. Female/female dyad's exhibited significant inter-brain coherence within the right temporal cortex, while significant coherence in male/male dyads occurred in the right inferior prefrontal cortex. Significant coherence was not observed in mixed-sex dyads. Finally, for same-sex dyads only, task-related inter-brain coherence was positively correlated with cooperation task performance. Our results highlight multiple important and previously undetected influences of sex on concurrent neural and behavioral signatures of cooperation.

来自多个领域的研究人员试图了解性别如何调节人类的社会行为。虽然50多年的研究发现男性和女性的合作行为存在差异,但这些性别差异的潜在神经相关性尚未解释。这个难题的一个缺失和根本的元素是理解一个相互作用的二元组的性别组成如何在合作期间影响大脑和行为。使用基于fNIRS的超级扫描在111个相同和混合的性别中,我们确定了与基于计算机的合作任务相关联的显着的行为和神经性别相关差异。含有至少一名雄性的雌蕊显示出明显高于女性/女性双胞胎的行为表现。个体男性和女性在右侧前额叶和右侧前额叶皮质显示出显着的活化,尽管与男性相比,女性的这种激活更大。女性/女性二重体在右侧颞叶皮质中显示出显着的脑内连贯性,而男性/女性双性染色体的显着一致性发生在右前额叶皮层。混合性别人群中没有观察到显着的一致性。最后,对于同性双胞胎,与任务相关的脑内一致性与合作任务绩效呈正相关。我们的研究结果突出了多个重要的,以前未被发现的性别对并发神经和行为签名合作的影响。

Links

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4897646
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27270754
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep26492

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