title: Sex differences in affective response to different intensity of emotionally negative stimuli: an event-related potentials study.
abstract: Previous studies have extensively reported an advantage of females in empathy as compared with males. It remains to be clarified, however, whether these sex differences are associated with sex specific neural processes underlying empathic response to different intensity of emotional stimulus. The present study examined sex differences in empathy for suffering persons by recording event-related potentials (ERP) to different emotional intensity. We compared affective response in males and females, who were exposed to a series of highly negative (HN), moderately negative (MN), and neutral pictures. The results revealed that both males and females showed a short-latency affective response, as indexed by frontal-central N2, to HN and MN stimuli. Moreover, both sexes showed a long-latency affective response, as indexed by central-parietal LPP, to HN stimuli. However, long-latency affective response to MN stimuli was present only in females, and sex differences were localized to the parietal sites. This suggests that the well-known female advantage in empathy may be attributable to the unique sensitivity of females to the affective state of persons in moderate suffering. Our results provide neuroscientific evidence for differences in affective response to different intensity of emotionally negative stimuli between the two sexes.
authors: Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China; School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China.
authors: Pinchao
authors: P
authors: Luo
authors: School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China.
authors: Xiaochun
authors: X
authors: Zheng
authors: School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China.
authors: Xiaoying
authors: X
authors: Chen
authors: School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China.
authors: Yue
authors: Y
authors: Li
authors: School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China.
authors: Junfang
authors: J
authors: Wang
authors: School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China.
authors: Lin
authors: L
authors: Deng
authors: Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China; School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, PR China. Electronic address: zhengxf@scnu.edu.cn.
authors: Xifu
authors: X
authors: Zheng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Affective response; Different emotional intensity; Empathy; Event-related potentials; Sex