title: Sex-dependent dissociation between emotional appraisal and memory: a large-scale behavioral and fMRI study.
abstract: Extensive evidence indicates that women outperform men in episodic memory tasks. Furthermore, women are known to evaluate emotional stimuli as more arousing than men. Because emotional arousal typically increases episodic memory formation, the females' memory advantage might be more pronounced for emotionally arousing information than for neutral information. Here, we report behavioral data from 3398 subjects, who performed picture rating and memory tasks, and corresponding fMRI data from up to 696 subjects. We were interested in the interaction between sex and valence category on emotional appraisal, memory performances, and fMRI activity. The behavioral results showed that females evaluate in particular negative (p < 10(-16)) and positive (p = 2 × 10(-4)), but not neutral pictures, as emotionally more arousing (pinteraction < 10(-16)) than males. However, in the free recall females outperformed males not only in positive (p < 10(-16)) and negative (p < 5 × 10(-5)), but also in neutral picture recall (p < 3.4 × 10(-8)), with a particular advantage for positive pictures (pinteraction < 4.4 × 10(-10)). Importantly, females' memory advantage during free recall was absent in a recognition setting. We identified activation differences in fMRI, which corresponded to the females' stronger appraisal of especially negative pictures, but no activation differences that reflected the interaction effect in the free recall memory task. In conclusion, females' valence-category-specific memory advantage is only observed in a free recall, but not a recognition setting and does not depend on females' higher emotional appraisal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience and.
authors.forename: Klara
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Spalek
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience and.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fastenrath
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Neuroscience.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ackermann
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Neuroscience.
authors.forename: Bianca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Auschra
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience and.
authors.forename: David
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5028-5807
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Coynel
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience and.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Frey
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience and.
authors.forename: Leo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gschwind
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Neuroscience.
authors.forename: Francina
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience and.
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: van der Maarel
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Neuroscience, Life Sciences Training Facility, and University Psychiatric Clinics, University of Basel, 4009 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Papassotiropoulos
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience and University Psychiatric Clinics, University of Basel, 4009 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: de Quervain
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Neuroscience, University Psychiatric Clinics, University of Basel, 4009 Basel, Switzerland annette.milnik@unibas.ch.
authors.forename: Annette
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3933-3289
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Milnik
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: arousal; episodic memory; picture task; sex differences; valence