Sex Differences in Social Cognition

Paletta, Pietro; Bass, Noah; Aspesi, Dario; Choleris, Elena

doi:10.1007/7854_2022_325

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 134 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In line with our findings, human data indicates that male, but not female, Met66BDNF allele-carriers experience higher incidences of major depressive disorder [56]. In addition, sex differences in social behavior have been widely described [57][58][59][60][61][62], and are likely to be caused by differences in neuronal activity, receptor density and hormonal signaling. However, further studies are needed to determine whether BDNF in female mice plays a role in other behaviors, including gating alcohol use [63], which is mediated in part via corticostriatal circuitries [31].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Sex differences in social behavior have been widely described [54][55][56][57][58][59]. Interestingly, we observed sex differences in social behaviors between the male and female Met68BDNF mice.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 49%

“…In addition, sex differences in social behavior have been widely described [50][51][52][53][54][55]. However, further studies are needed to determine whether BDNF in female mice plays a role in other behaviors, including gating alcohol use, which is mediated in part via corticostriatal circuitries in male mice [14,[56][57][58].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The BDNF Val68Met polymorphism causes a sex specific alcohol preference over social interaction and also acute tolerance to the anxiolytic effects of alcohol, a phenotype driven by malfunction of BDNF in the ventral hippocampus of male mice

Moffat

Sakhai

Hoisington

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Valine 66 to Methionine human polymorphism results in impaired activity-dependent BDNF release and has been linked to psychiatric disorders including anxiety and alcohol dependence. We previously showed that knock-in mice carrying the mouse Methionine homolog (Met68BDNF) exhibit excessive and compulsive alcohol drinking behaviors as compared to the wild-type Val68BDNF mice. Here, we set out to determine the potential mechanism for the heightened and compulsive alcohol drinking phenotype exhibited by the Met68BDNFmice. We found that male, but not female Met68BDNF mice show social anxiety-like behaviors. We further report that male, but not female, Met68BDNF mice are resistant to the anxiolytic effects and sedative actions of alcohol as compared to Val68BDNF mice. Alcohol-dependent hypolocomotion is also reduced in Met68BDNF. In contrast, alcohol place preference is similar in Met68BDNF compared with Val68BDNF mice. Finally, we show that the anxiolytic action of alcohol is restored in Met68BDNF mice by overexpressing the wild-type Val68BDNF in the ventral hippocampus (vHC). Together, our results suggest that heighted social anxiety and a lack of alcohol-dependent anxiolysis may contribute to excessive alcohol intake by constraining normal BDNF signaling in the vHC.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 49%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The BDNF Val68Met polymorphism causes a sex specific alcohol preference over social interaction and also acute tolerance to the anxiolytic effects of alcohol, a phenotype driven by malfunction of BDNF in the ventral hippocampus of male mice

Moffat

Sakhai

Hoisington

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This finding supports our hypothesis that personality may play a role in processing social stimuli differently in males and in females. More specifically, our results align with the sex differences observed in the social domain, where females tend to be more socially oriented and are often described as possessing inherent sensitivity to nonverbal social and emotional cues, (Baron-Cohen et al, 2005;Hall & Halberstadt, 1981;Paletta et al, 2022;Pavlova et al, 2010;Proverbio, 2021;Proverbio et al, 2008;Stake & Eisele, 2010). This inherent sensitivity likely contributes to the lacking impact of personality on emotional cue decoding observed in females.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Agreeableness modulates mental state decoding: Electrophysiological evidence

Pisanu,

Arbula,

Rumiati

2024

Human Brain Mapping

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Agreeableness is one of the five personality traits which is associated with theory of mind (ToM) abilities. One of the critical processes involved in ToM is the decoding of emotional cues. In the present study, we investigated whether this process is modulated by agreeableness using electroencephalography (EEG) while taking into account task complexity and sex differences that are expected to moderate the relationship between emotional decoding and agreeableness. This approach allowed us to identify at which stage of the neural processing agreeableness kicks in, in order to distinguish the impact on early, perceptual processes from slower, inferential processing. Two tasks were employed and submitted to 62 participants during EEG recording: the reading the mind in the eyes (RME) task, requiring the decoding of complex mental states from eye expressions, and the biological (e)motion task, involving the perception of basic emotional actions through point‐light body stimuli. Event‐related potential (ERP) results showed a significant correlation between agreeableness and the contrast for emotional and non‐emotional trials in a late time window only during the RME task. Specifically, higher levels of agreeableness were associated with a deeper neural processing of emotional versus non‐emotional trials within the whole and male samples. In contrast, the modulation in females was negligible. The source analysis highlighted that this ERP‐agreeableness association engages the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Our findings expand previous research on personality and social processing and confirm that sex modulates this relationship.

show abstract

“…Since sexual selection predicts that males and females are subjected to different selection pressures leading to dimorphisms 4,5 , it goes to reason that the same would occur for an essential ability such as learning. Consistent with this prediction, several sex-shared traits such as perception and learning have been previously demonstrated to be modulated by the genetic sex [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] . It has also been proposed that context-dependent learning by itself can influence the predicted evolutionary outcome 13 .…”

Section: Main Textmentioning

confidence: 54%

Modulation by NPYR underlies experience-dependent, sexually dimorphic learning

Peedikayil-Kurien,

Haque,

Gat

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The evolutionary paths taken by each sex within a given species sometimes diverge, resulting in behavioral differences that promote specific fitness outcomes for each sex. Given their distinct needs, the mechanism by which each sex learns from a shared experience is still an open question. We reveal a novel sexual dimorphism in learning: C. elegans males do not learn to avoid the pathogenic bacteria PA14 as efficiently and rapidly as hermaphrodites, even though their innate immunity recognizes the pathogen in a similar manner. Notably, we observe sexually dimorphic neuronal activity following pathogen exposure: hermaphrodites generate robust representations while males, in line with their behavior, exhibit contrasting representations, suggesting that a mechanism that modulates incoming sensory cues is at play. Transcriptomic and behavioral analysis revealed that the neuropeptide receptor npr-5, an ortholog of the mammalian NPY receptor, regulates male learning by modulating neuronal activity. Furthermore, we show the dependency of the males decision-making phenotype on their sexual status and demonstrate the pivotal role of npr-5 in this regulation as a sensory gatekeeper. Thus, collectively, we portray sex-specific plasticity in behavior toward a shared experience by modulating learning to fulfill the evolutionary needs.

show abstract

Sex Differences in Social Cognition

Cited by 10 publications

References 134 publications

The BDNF Val68Met polymorphism causes a sex specific alcohol preference over social interaction and also acute tolerance to the anxiolytic effects of alcohol, a phenotype driven by malfunction of BDNF in the ventral hippocampus of male mice

The BDNF Val68Met polymorphism causes a sex specific alcohol preference over social interaction and also acute tolerance to the anxiolytic effects of alcohol, a phenotype driven by malfunction of BDNF in the ventral hippocampus of male mice

Agreeableness modulates mental state decoding: Electrophysiological evidence

Modulation by NPYR underlies experience-dependent, sexually dimorphic learning

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About