Sex and Gender Differences in Emotion Recognition and Theory of Mind After TBI: A Narrative Review and Directions for Future Research

Turkstra, Lyn S.; Mutlu, Bilge; Ryan, Caitlin W.; Stafslien, Emily H. Despins; Richmond, Erica; Hosokawa, Emily; Duff, Melissa C.

doi:10.3389/fneur.2020.00059

Cited by 31 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 85 publications

(95 reference statements)

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“…However, as is the case for emotion recognition, identified sex differences in social cognition are often small and moderated by other factors (Thompson and Voyer 2014 ) or not present at all (Di Tella et al 2020 ). Although there are studies that do report sex differences (Baron-Cohen et al 2015 ), for ToM, the evidence of sex differences is even more limited (Turkstra et al 2020 ), and an earlier study, using the exact same ToM measure, the MASC test, reported no sex differences for schizophrenia (Fretland et al 2015 ). In spite of this, the public opinion is often that females are better mindreaders than males.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theory of mind in users of anabolic androgenic steroids

2020

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Rationale Anabolic androgenic steroids are used to improve physical performance or increase lean muscle mass. About one-third of users develop a dependency syndrome, which is characterized by elevated rates of psychopathology, cognitive impairments, and aggressive and antisocial behaviors. The mechanisms behind these intra- and interpersonal problems are not known. Objective To examine theory of mind (ToM), i.e., the ability to infer the mental state of others, in users of anabolic androgenic steroids. Reduced ToM may be one factor underlying the interpersonal problems that have been reported with prolonged use of anabolic androgenic steroids. Methods The Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC) was used to assess ToM. Study participants were male/female weightlifters who used anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS, n = 34/9), who were dependent on anabolic androgenic steroids (AASdep, n = 44/7), and a non-using weightlifting comparison group (WLC, n = 69/16). Results Analyses of variance showed that the AASdep group performed significantly worse than the WLC group, for all MASC measures (total ToM, cognitive ToM, affective ToM, overmentalizing/undermentalizing errors). Sex and sex x group interaction effects were non-significant. Conclusions Male and female weightlifters who were dependent on anabolic androgenic steroids had impaired ToM. Their reduced social cognition may be one contributing factor to the elevated rates of antisocial behavior reported in this population.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theory of mind in users of anabolic androgenic steroids

2020

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“…After compounding all the various emotions that the study sample were asked to analyze into a positive and a negative group, we were able to conclude that the most accurately perceived emotion was “Love”, and the least recognized was “Fear.” “Love” is a complex and, somewhat, problematic emotion, since it can be considered either self-contained or encompassing all other basic emotions. It should also be noted that our group included more women than men, with the former sex potentially situated at an advantage, across the lifespan, in terms of overall “social thinking”, 44 and, especially, when faced with having to recognize a positive affect or display subtleties. 45 This might also be explained by the fact that most of the study participants were married, which is consistent with findings in literature suggesting that a greater intimate-life satisfaction correlates with a greater expertise in recognizing positive, but not negative, emotions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Inferences as Mediators of Wellbeing in Depression

Giurgi-Oncu

Bredicean

Frandeș

et al. 2021

NDT

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Background Depression is an increasingly prevalent chronic mental health condition that involves a range of potentially negative implications, in the long term. Theory of Mind (ToM) serves to form and maintain social relationships, by accurately identifying thoughts and emotions in others. Defective ToM abilities have been noted in people with a history of clinical depression. Purpose To identify whether impairments of emotion recognition are correlated with a lower subjective feeling of wellbeing in people diagnosed with a chronic depressive illness. Patients and Methods In a cross-sectional analysis of a recurrent depressive disorder (RDD, as per WHO ICD-10 nosology) cohort (n=57), the BECK depression scale and the “Reading the mind in the eyes” test were employed for the diagnosis of clinical symptoms, and for the evaluation of individual ToM skills, respectively. Wellbeing was quantified using the FANLCT scale. Results The wellbeing of service-users decreased significantly, in correlation with their defective emotion recognition abilities. Additionally, a low capacity for the correct perception of emotions in other people appears to significantly influence the social relationships status, with scores of 14.00 (10.00–18.50) at low capacity vs 23.00 (17.58–24.75) at normal capacity (Mann–Whitney U -test, p < 0.001). Our study findings indicate that a normal ability for a correct recognition of emotions in others is significantly and strongly correlated with adequate social relationships (Spearman r = 0.757, p < 0.05). Conclusion Wellbeing is significantly correlated with the individual ability for a correct recognition of emotions in others.

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“…The fusiform gyrus ( N 5 ) is involved in high-level visual computations undertaken during face perception, object recognition, and reading ( Weiner and Zilles, 2016 ). Worse performance on tasks related to these cognitive functions has been reported after TBI ( Alnawmasi et al, 2019 ; Turkstra et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Connectome Dynamics After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury According to Age and Sex

Amgalan

Maher

Imms

et al. 2022

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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Neural and cognitive deficits after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) are paralleled by changes in resting state functional correlation (FC) networks that mirror post-traumatic pathophysiology effects on functional outcomes. Using functional magnetic resonance images acquired both acutely and chronically after injury (∼1 week and ∼6 months post-injury, respectively), we map post-traumatic FC changes across 136 participants aged 19–79 (52 females), both within and between the brain’s seven canonical FC networks: default mode, dorsal attention, frontoparietal, limbic, somatomotor, ventral attention, and visual. Significant sex-dependent FC changes are identified between (A) visual and limbic, and between (B) default mode and somatomotor networks. These changes are significantly associated with specific functional recovery patterns across all cognitive domains (p < 0.05, corrected). Changes in FC between default mode, somatomotor, and ventral attention networks, on the one hand, and both temporal and occipital regions, on the other hand, differ significantly by age group (p < 0.05, corrected), and are paralleled by significant sex differences in cognitive recovery independently of age at injury (p < 0.05, corrected). Whereas females’ networks typically feature both significant (p < 0.036, corrected) and insignificant FC changes, males more often exhibit significant FC decreases between networks (e.g., between dorsal attention and limbic, visual and limbic, default-mode and somatomotor networks, p < 0.0001, corrected), all such changes being accompanied by significantly weaker recovery of cognitive function in males, particularly older ones (p < 0.05, corrected). No significant FC changes were found across 35 healthy controls aged 66–92 (20 females). Thus, male sex and older age at injury are risk factors for significant FC alterations whose patterns underlie post-traumatic cognitive deficits. This is the first study to map, systematically, how mTBI impacts FC between major human functional networks.

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Sex and Gender Differences in Emotion Recognition and Theory of Mind After TBI: A Narrative Review and Directions for Future Research

Cited by 31 publications

References 85 publications

Theory of mind in users of anabolic androgenic steroids

Theory of mind in users of anabolic androgenic steroids

Social Inferences as Mediators of Wellbeing in Depression

Functional Connectome Dynamics After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury According to Age and Sex

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