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Sex differences in default mode and dorsal attention network engagement
Kelly M Dumais1,2, Sergey Chernyak1,2, Lisa D Nickerson1,2
1McLean Imaging Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Plos One
|June 15, 2018
Summary
Women show enhanced external attention to reward and punishment compared to men, indicated by brain network activity. This sex difference in attention is specific to emotional stimuli, not general cognitive tasks.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Understanding sex differences in brain networks is crucial for basic neurobiology.
- Previous research indicates women's enhanced attention to reward/punishment, but neural network engagement remains unexplored.
- Sex-based variations in attention networks during reward/punishment processing are not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate sex differences in default mode network (DMN), dorsal attention network (DAN), and frontal parietal network (FPN) activation.
- Examine if these sex differences are specific to valenced stimuli (reward/punishment) versus neutral tasks.
- Explore neurobiological underpinnings of sex differences in attention to reward and punishment.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from 190 healthy participants from the Human Connectome Project.
- Analyzed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data during exposure to reward, punishment, and working memory tasks.
- Compared activation and suppression patterns across DMN, DAN, and FPN between men and women.
Main Results:
- Women exhibited greater suppression of the DMN and increased activation of the DAN compared to men during reward and punishment.
- This pattern suggests enhanced external attention in women specifically for valenced stimuli.
- No significant sex differences in network activation were observed during the working memory task.
Conclusions:
- Sex differences in attention are stimulus-dependent, particularly pronounced for reward and punishment processing.
- Findings provide a neurobiological basis for women's heightened sensitivity to reward/punishment and potential implications for psychiatric disorders.
- Highlights the importance of considering sex as a biological variable in reward processing research.
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