Abstract
To investigate gender differences in functional connectivity during the unattended processing of facial expressions, we recorded visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) in 34 adults using a deviant-standard reverse oddball paradigm. Using wavelet analysis, we calculated the time-frequency (TF) power at each electrode associated with happy-deviant, sad-deviant, happy-standard and sad-standard conditions. We also calculated the phase lag index (PLI) between electrode pairs and analyzed the dynamic network topologies of the functional connectivity for happy and sad vMMNs in the delta (0.5–4 Hz), theta (4–8 Hz), alpha (8–13 Hz), beta (13–30 Hz) and gamma (30–45 Hz) bands. The results showed that females induced stronger TF power and PLI values than males in only the alpha band over the whole brain regarding the vMMN. Moreover, females had a higher ratio of the number of connections between long-distance electrode pairs than males. While theoretical analysis of dynamic network topologies indicated that high node degree values were found in local brain regions of males and in almost the entire female brain, our findings suggested that female brain activation and connections between brain regions are not only stronger but also more widely distributed during the unattended processing of facial expressions than those in males.
Highlights
IntroductionA large number of studies have been conducted to analyzed emotion processing using electroencephalography (EEG), and many of them evidenced the different processing capacities between the two sexes, showing that females are more competent in detecting feels than males (Schirmer et al, 2002; Campanella et al, 2004; Montagne et al, 2005; Li et al, 2008; Lithari et al, 2010)
Males exhibited the activation of only the occipital lobe brain regions, and a small area of right middle frontal gyrus was activated during the happy visual MMN (vMMN) condition
This study supports that females induce stronger TF power and phase lag index (PLI) values than males in the alpha band over the whole brain
Summary
A large number of studies have been conducted to analyzed emotion processing using electroencephalography (EEG), and many of them evidenced the different processing capacities between the two sexes, showing that females are more competent in detecting feels than males (Schirmer et al, 2002; Campanella et al, 2004; Montagne et al, 2005; Li et al, 2008; Lithari et al, 2010) These studies have found that high-intensity negative emotional stimuli are more likely to irritate people, including males and females, Abbreviations: DCT, difference in the change trends; EEG, electroencephalography; ERPs, event-related potentials; MMN, mismatch negativity; PLI, phase lag index; SD, standard deviation; TF, time-frequency; vMMN, visual mismatch negativity. The vMMN, in response to deviant facial expressions, designates the violation of abstract sequential regularities in facial expressions with a predictive memory representation, but the mechanism of vMMN is not very clear
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