Sex differences in externalizing and internalizing traits and ventral striatal responses to monetary loss

Guangfei Li; Yashuang Li; Zhao Zhang; Yu Chen; Bao Li; Dongmei Hao; Lin Yang; Yimin Yang; Xuwen Li; Chiang-Shan R Li

doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.04.013

Sex differences in externalizing and internalizing traits and ventral striatal responses to monetary loss

J Psychiatr Res. 2023 Jun:162:11-20. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.04.013. Epub 2023 Apr 12.

Authors

Guangfei Li¹, Yashuang Li², Zhao Zhang³, Yu Chen⁴, Bao Li², Dongmei Hao⁵, Lin Yang⁵, Yimin Yang⁵, Xuwen Li⁵, Chiang-Shan R Li⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China; Beijing International Science and Technology Cooperation Base for Intelligent Physiological Measurement and Clinical Transformation, Beijing, China. Electronic address: guangfei.li@bjut.edu.cn.
² Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
⁵ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China; Beijing International Science and Technology Cooperation Base for Intelligent Physiological Measurement and Clinical Transformation, Beijing, China.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. Electronic address: chiang-shan.li@yale.edu.

Abstract

Ventral striatum (VS) processes rewarding and punishing stimuli. Women and men vary in externalizing and internalizing traits, which may influence neural responses to reward and punishment. To investigate sex differences in how individual traits influence VS responses to reward and punishment, we curated the data of the Human Connectome Project and identified 981 (473 men) subjects evaluated by the Achenbach Adult Self-Report Syndrome Scales. We processed the imaging data with published routines and extracted VS response (β) to win and to loss vs. baseline in a gambling task for correlation with externalizing and internalizing symptom severity. Men vs. women showed more severe externalizing symptoms and higher VS response to monetary losses (VS-loss β) but not to wins. Men but not women showed a significant, positive correlation between VS-loss β and externalizing traits, and the sex difference was confirmed by a slope test. The correlations of VS-loss vs. externalizing and of VS-win vs. externalizing and those of VS-loss vs. externalizing and of VS-loss vs. internalizing traits both differed significantly in slope, confirming its specificity, in men. Further, the sex-specific relationship between VS-loss β and externalizing trait did not extend to activities during exposure to negative emotion in the face matching task. To conclude, VS responses to loss but not to win and their correlation with externalizing rather than internalizing symptom severity showed sex differences in young adults. The findings highlight the relationship of externalizing traits and VS response to monetary loss and may have implications for psychological models of externalizing behaviors in men.

Keywords: Externalizing; Punishment; Sex differences; VS; fMRI.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Female
Humans
Male
Sex Characteristics*
Ventral Striatum* / diagnostic imaging
Young Adult

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding