面孔偏好的性别差异 _ 来自功能成像的证据.pdfVIP

摘要    面孔偏好的性别差异 —来自功能成像的证据 面孔感知以及面孔加工偏好一直以来是认知神经科学领域研究的热点，然而男女两 性对面孔偏好差异的脑机制尚不清楚。本研究采用功能磁共振成像技术（functional magnetic resonance imaging ，简称 fMRI ）来探索面孔偏好性别差异的神经机制。三十二 名被试（男、女各 16 人）被要求观看一系列中性效价的婴儿面孔图片，女性成人面孔 图片以及男性成人面孔图片，并对图片进行吸引力评分。结果发现，婴儿面孔吸引力对 奖赏相关区域伏隔核（Nucleus Accumbens, NAcc ）和评估奖赏的相关区域腹内侧前额叶 皮层（Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex, VMPFC ）的调制效应仅存在于女性被试；相较女 性被试，男性被试只有在观看女性图片时才激活伏隔核。此外，女性观看婴儿图片时还 显著激活了脑岛（Insula ），该区域的BOLD 信号在男性观看婴儿或女性图片时都出现了 明显增强。这些结果表明面孔偏好存在着性别差异，女性和男性对婴儿面孔存在偏好， 但是两者对婴儿面孔的加工处理机制存在差异。另外，男性还对女性面孔存在偏好。这 种面孔偏好的性别差异可能是由于在进化过程中，女性的抚养后代和男性的最大化受精 女性的数量之间的动机冲突所导致的。 关键词：面孔偏好；性别差异；功能磁共振成像技术 Abstract   Gender Differences in Face Preference —Evidences from Neuroimaging Facial perception and processing have always been hot topics, but less was known about neural mechanism of the gender differences in face preference. This research explored the potential gender differences in face preference by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Thirty-two subjects (16 male and 16 female) were asked to watch a series of infant faces, female faces and male faces with neutral expressions and to give attractiveness ratings to each presented face. We found that the modulation mechanism induced by the attractiveness of infant faces in reward associated area (Nucleus Accumbens, NAcc) and reward estimation associated area (Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex, VMPFC) was only found in female participants. Besides, while viewing infant faces, female participants showed higher activation in insula, where the BOLD signal was significantly enhanced while male viewing infant and female faces. These results demonstrate that gender differences do exist in face