Men and women show differences in sensitivity to reward and punishment, which may impact behavior in health and disease. However, the neural bases of these sex differences remain under-investigated. Here, by combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a variant of the Monetary Incentive Delay Task (MIDT), we examined sex differences in the neural responses to wins and losses and how individual reward and punishment sensitivity modulates these regional activities. Thirty-sex men and 27 women participated in the fMRI study. We assessed sensitivity to punishment (SP) and sensitivity to reward (SR) with the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ). In the MIDT, participants pressed a button to collect reward ($1, 1¢, or nil), with the reaction time window titrated across trials so participants achieved a success rate of approximately 67%. We processed the Imaging data with published routines and evaluated the results with a corrected threshold. Women showed higher SP score than men and men showed higher SR score than women. Men relative to women showed higher response to the receipt of dollar or cent reward in bilateral orbitofrontal and visual cortex. Men as compared to women also showed higher response to dollar loss in bilateral orbitofrontal cortex. Further, in whole-brain regressions, women relative to men demonstrated more significant modulation by SP in the neural responses to wins and larger wins, and the sex differences were confirmed by slope tests. Together, men showed higher SR and neural sensitivity to both wins, large or small, and losses than women. Individual differences in SP were associated with diminished neural responses to wins and larger wins in women only. These findings highlight how men and women may differ in reward-related brain activations in the MIDT and add to the imaging literature of sex differences in cognitive and affective functions.

中文翻译：

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对奖励的神经反应的性别差异以及个体奖励和惩罚敏感性的影响

男性和女性对奖励和惩罚的敏感性不同，这可能会影响健康和疾病的行为。然而，这些性别差异的神经基础仍未得到充分研究。在这里，通过结合功能磁共振成像 (fMRI) 和货币激励延迟任务 (MIDT) 的变体，我们检查了对胜利和失败的神经反应的性别差异，以及个体奖励和惩罚敏感性如何调节这些区域活动。30 名男性和 27 名女性参加了 fMRI 研究。我们通过对惩罚的敏感性和对奖励的敏感性问卷 (SPSRQ) 评估了对惩罚的敏感性 (SP) 和对奖励的敏感性 (SR)。在 MIDT 中，参与者按下按钮来收集奖励（1 美元、1 美分或零），反应时间窗口在整个试验中滴定，因此参与者的成功率约为 67%。我们使用已发布的例程处理成像数据，并使用更正的阈值评估结果。女性的 SP 得分高于男性，男性的 SR 得分高于女性。相对于女性，男性对双侧眶额和视觉皮层的美元或美分奖励表现出更高的反应。与女性相比，男性对双侧眶额皮质的美元损失也表现出更高的反应。此外，在全脑回归中，女性相对于男性在对胜利和更大胜利的神经反应中表现出更显着的 SP 调节，并且性别差异通过斜率测试得到证实。总之，男性比女性对胜利（无论大小）和失败都表现出更高的 SR 和神经敏感性。SP 的个体差异与女性对胜利的神经反应减弱和更大的胜利有关。这些发现强调了男性和女性在 MIDT 中与奖赏相关的大脑激活有何不同，并增加了认知和情感功能性别差异的影像学文献。