Attend or defend? Sex differences in behavioral, autonomic, and respiratory response patterns to emotion–eliciting films

• Published in: Biological psychology Vol. 130; pp. 30 - 40
• Main Authors: Wilhelm, Frank H., Rattel, Julina A., Wegerer, Melanie, Liedlgruber, Michael, Schweighofer, Simon, Kreibig, Sylvia D., Kolodyazhniy, Vitaliy, Blechert, Jens
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.12.2017
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological - physiology; Adult; Affective neuroscience; Anxiety disorder; Arousal - physiology; Autonomic nervous system; Autonomic Nervous System - physiology; Cardiovascular system; Circumplex model; Defense cascade; Electrodermal system; Emotion; Emotions - physiology; Fear; Female; Gender differences; Heart Rate - physiology; Heart rate variability; Humans; Impedance cardiography; Male; Mental stress; Motion Pictures; Parasympathetic nervous system; Pre-ejection period; Psychophysiology; Respiration; Respiratory sinus arrhythmia; Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia - physiology; Sadness; Sex Factors; Social Behavior; Sympathetic nervous system; Young Adult; Cardiovascular system; Pre-ejection period; Affective neuroscience; Anxiety disorder; Gender differences; Sympathetic nervous system; Sadness; Fear; Autonomic nervous system; Electrodermal system; Defense cascade; Circumplex model; Emotion; Impedance cardiography; Respiration; Heart rate variability; Respiratory sinus arrhythmia; Psychophysiology; Parasympathetic nervous system; Mental stress
• ISSN: 0301-0511; 1873-6246; 1873-6246
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.10.006

•Marked sex differences in muscular, autonomic, respiratory reactivity to threat films.•Women’s threat response represented a sympathetically-driven defense response.•Men’s threat response represented a parasympathetically-driven orienting response.•Sex-specific responses resemble prototypical stages of the defense cascade model. Sex differences in emotional reactivity have been studied primarily for negative but less so for positive stimuli; likewise, sex differences in the psychophysiological response-patterning during such stimuli are poorly understood. Thus, the present study examined sex differences in response to negative/positive and high/low arousing films (classified as threat-, loss-, achievement-, and recreation-related, vs. neutral films), while measuring 18 muscular, autonomic, and respiratory parameters. Sex differences emerged for all films, but were most prominent for threat-related films: Despite equivalent valence and arousal ratings, women displayed more facial-muscular and respiratory responding than men and pronounced sympathetic activation (preejection period, other cardiovascular and electrodermal measures), while men showed coactivated sympathetic/parasympathetic responding (including increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia). This indicates a prototypical threat-related defense response in women, while men showed a pattern of sustained orienting, which can be understood as a shift toward less threat proximity in the defense cascade model. Clinical implications are discussed within a socio-evolutionary framework.