scholarly journals Alcoholism Gender Differences in Brain Responsivity to Emotional Stimuli

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayle S. Sawyer ◽  
Nasim Maleki ◽  
Trinity Urban ◽  
Ksenija Marinkovic ◽  
Steven A. Karson ◽  
...  

AbstractMen and women may use alcohol to regulate their emotions differently, with corresponding differences in neural responses. We examined how photographs of emotional stimuli impacted brain activity obtained through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) from 42 alcoholic (25 women) and 46 nonalcoholic (24 women) participants. Brain responsivity was blunted in alcoholic compared to nonalcoholic groups. Further analyses indicated significant gender differences in the impact of alcoholism. Brain activation of the alcoholic men (ALCM) was significantly lower than that of the alcoholic women (ALCW) and nonalcoholic men (NCM) in regions including the inferior parietal gyrus, anterior cingulate gyrus, and postcentral gyrus, whereas activation was higher in the ALCW than in the nonalcoholic women (NCW) in superior frontal and supramarginal cortical regions. The reduced brain reactivity of ALCM and increases for ALCW highlighted divergent brain regions and gender effects, suggesting possible differences in the underlying basis for development of alcohol use disorders.

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayle S Sawyer ◽  
Nasim Maleki ◽  
Trinity Urban ◽  
Ksenija Marinkovic ◽  
Steven Karson ◽  
...  

Men and women may use alcohol to regulate emotions differently, with corresponding differences in neural responses. We explored how the viewing of different types of emotionally salient stimuli impacted brain activity observed through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) from 42 long-term abstinent alcoholic (25 women) and 46 nonalcoholic (24 women) participants. Analyses revealed blunted brain responsivity in alcoholic compared to nonalcoholic groups, as well as gender differences in those activation patterns. Brain activation in alcoholic men (ALCM) was significantly lower than in nonalcoholic men (NCM) in regions including rostral middle and superior frontal cortex, precentral gyrus, and inferior parietal cortex, whereas activation was higher in alcoholic women (ALCW) than in nonalcoholic women (NCW) in superior frontal and supramarginal cortical regions. The reduced brain reactivity of ALCM, and increases for ALCW, highlighted divergent brain regions and gender effects, suggesting possible differences in the underlying basis for development of alcohol use disorders.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshio Tsuji ◽  
Fumiya Arikuni ◽  
Takafumi Sasaoka ◽  
Shin Suyama ◽  
Takashi Akiyoshi ◽  
...  

AbstractBrain activity associated with pain perception has been revealed by numerous PET and fMRI studies over the past few decades. These findings helped to establish the concept of the pain matrix, which is the distributed brain networks that demonstrate pain-specific cortical activities. We previously found that peripheral arterial stiffness $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art responds to pain intensity, which is estimated from electrocardiography, continuous sphygmomanometer, and photo-plethysmography. However, it remains unclear whether and to what extent $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art aligns with pain matrix brain activity. In this fMRI study, 22 participants received different intensities of pain stimuli. We identified brain regions in which the blood oxygen level-dependent signal covaried with $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art using parametric modulation analysis. Among the identified brain regions, the lateral and medial prefrontal cortex and ventral and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex were consistent with the pain matrix. We found moderate correlations between the average activities in these regions and $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art (r = 0.47, p < 0.001). $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art was also significantly correlated with self-reported pain intensity (r = 0.44, p < 0.001) and applied pain intensity (r = 0.43, p < 0.001). Our results indicate that $${\beta }_{\text{art}}$$ β art is positively correlated with pain-related brain activity and subjective pain intensity. This study may thus represent a basis for adopting peripheral arterial stiffness as an objective pain evaluation metric.


2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 931-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Nathan DeWall ◽  
Geoff MacDonald ◽  
Gregory D. Webster ◽  
Carrie L. Masten ◽  
Roy F. Baumeister ◽  
...  

Pain, whether caused by physical injury or social rejection, is an inevitable part of life. These two types of pain—physical and social—may rely on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms that register pain-related affect. To the extent that these pain processes overlap, acetaminophen, a physical pain suppressant that acts through central (rather than peripheral) neural mechanisms, may also reduce behavioral and neural responses to social rejection. In two experiments, participants took acetaminophen or placebo daily for 3 weeks. Doses of acetaminophen reduced reports of social pain on a daily basis (Experiment 1). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure participants’ brain activity (Experiment 2), and found that acetaminophen reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions previously associated with distress caused by social pain and the affective component of physical pain (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula). Thus, acetaminophen reduces behavioral and neural responses associated with the pain of social rejection, demonstrating substantial overlap between social and physical pain.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 5808
Author(s):  
Annalisa Giandalia ◽  
Alfio Edoardo Giuffrida ◽  
Guido Gembillo ◽  
Domenico Cucinotta ◽  
Giovanni Squadrito ◽  
...  

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is one of the most serious complications of both type 1 (T1DM) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Current guidelines recommend a personalized approach in order to reduce the burden of DM and its complications. Recognizing sex and gender- differences in medicine is considered one of the first steps toward personalized medicine, but the gender issue in DM has been scarcely explored so far. Gender differences have been reported in the incidence and the prevalence of DKD, in its phenotypes and clinical manifestations, as well as in several risk factors, with a different impact in the two genders. Hormonal factors, especially estrogen loss, play a significant role in explaining these differences. Additionally, the impact of sex chromosomes as well as the influence of gene–sex interactions with several susceptibility genes for DKD have been investigated. In spite of the increasing evidence that sex and gender should be included in the evaluation of DKD, several open issues remain uncovered, including the potentially different effects of newly recommended drugs, such as SGLT2i and GLP1Ras. This narrative review explored current evidence on sex/gender differences in DKD, taking into account hormonal, genetic and clinical factors.


2001 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Kaufmann ◽  
Gregor-Konstantin Elbel ◽  
Christoff Gössl ◽  
Benno Pütz ◽  
Dorothee P. Auer

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nobuaki Mizuguchi ◽  
Shintaro Uehara ◽  
Satoshi Hirose ◽  
Shinji Yamamoto ◽  
Eiichi Naito

Motor performance fluctuates trial by trial even in a well-trained motor skill. Here we show neural substrates underlying such behavioral fluctuation in humans. We first scanned brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging while healthy participants repeatedly performed a 10 s skillful sequential finger-tapping task. Before starting the experiment, the participants had completed intensive training. We evaluated task performance per trial (number of correct sequences in 10 s) and depicted brain regions where the activity changes in association with the fluctuation of the task performance across trials. We found that the activity in a broader range of frontoparietocerebellar network, including the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), anterior cingulate and anterior insular cortices, and left cerebellar hemisphere, was negatively correlated with the task performance. We further showed in another transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) experiment that task performance deteriorated, when we applied anodal tDCS to the right DLPFC. These results indicate that fluctuation of brain activity in the nonmotor frontoparietocerebellar network may underlie trial-by-trial performance variability even in a well-trained motor skill, and its neuromodulation with tDCS may affect the task performance.


Stroke ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Guo ◽  
Ning Chen ◽  
Muke Zhou ◽  
Pian Wang ◽  
Li He

Background: Transient ischemic attack (TIA) can increase the risk of some neurologic dysfunctions, of which the mechanism remains unclear. Resting-state functional MRI (rfMRI) is suggested to be a valuable tool to study the relation between spontaneous brain activity and behavioral performance. However, little is known about whether the local synchronization of spontaneous neural activity is altered in TIA patients. The purpose of this study is to detect differences in regional spontaneous activities throughout the whole brain between TIAs and normal controls. Methods: Twenty one TIA patients suffered an ischemic event in the right hemisphere and 21 healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study. All subjects were investigated using cognitive tests and rfMRI. The regional homogeneity (ReHo) was calculate and compared between two groups. Then a correlation analysis was performed to explore the relationship between ReHo values of brain regions showing abnormal resting-state properties and clinical variables in TIA group. Results: Compared with controls, TIA patients exhibited decreased ReHo in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), right inferior prefrontal gyrus, right ventral anterior cingulate cortex and right dorsal posterior cingular cortex. Moreover, the mean ReHo in right DLPFC and right inferior prefrontal gyrus were significantly correlated with MoCA in TIA patients. Conclusions: Neural activity in the resting state is changed in patients with TIA. The positive correlation between regional homogeneity of rfMRI and cognition suggests that ReHo may be a promising tool to better our understanding of the neurobiological consequences of TIA.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 811-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda J. Liddell ◽  
Jessica Cheung ◽  
Tim Outhred ◽  
Pritha Das ◽  
Gin S. Malhi ◽  
...  

Refugees are exposed to multiple traumatic events and postmigration stressors, elevating risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but there is limited research into how these factors affect emotional neural systems. Here, resettled refugees in Australia ( N = 85) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan while viewing fear and neutral faces. We examined the influence of PTSD symptoms, cumulative trauma, and recent postmigration stress on neural reactivity and regional coupling within the refugee sample. Cumulative trauma and postmigration stress but not PTSD symptoms correlated with fear-related brain activity and connectivity. Trauma exposure correlated with stronger activity but overall decreased connectivity in the bilateral posterior insula/rolandic operculum, postcentral gyrus, ventral anterior cingulate cortex, and posterior cingulate gyrus. Postmigration stress correlated with fusiform gyrus hyperactivity and increased connectivity in face-processing networks. Findings highlight the impact of past trauma and recent postmigration stress on fear-related neural responses within refugees over and above PTSD symptoms.


2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (7) ◽  
pp. 2219-2232
Author(s):  
Inna Levy ◽  
Pamela Kerschke-Risch

PurposeThe current research focused on attitudes toward food fraud (AFF) and examined the impact of types of food fraud, gender differences, and country of residence.Design/methodology/approachA convenience sample of German (n = 151) and Israeli (n = 496) participants was recruited through an online survey. They filled out a sociodemographic questionnaire and AFF scale, which includes three subscales: organic fraud, kosher fraud, and spraying fraud.FindingsThe results indicate that there is a significant effect of type of fraud, country of residence, and gender. German participants expressed more negative attitudes toward organic food fraud and less negative attitudes toward kosher fraud than Israeli participants. Women expressed more negative attitudes toward organic and kosher food frauds than men.Originality/valueThis study offers insight into cross-cultural and gender differences in attitudes toward food fraud. The findings suggest that public attitudes toward food fraud represent not just severity of possible consequences, but also environmental and religious aspects of consumption, norms and culture.


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