Several studies suggest facial affect perception (FAP) deficits in schizophrenia are linked to poorer social functioning. However, whether reduced functioning is associated with inaccurate perception of specific emotional valence or a global FAP impairment remains unclear. The present study examined whether impairment in the perception of specific emotional valences (positive, negative) and neutrality were uniquely associated with social functioning, using a multimodal social functioning battery. A sample of 59 individuals with schizophrenia and 41 controls completed a computerized FAP task, and measures of functional capacity, social competence, and social attainment. Participants also underwent neuropsychological testing and symptom assessment. Regression analyses revealed that only accurately perceiving negative emotions explained significant variance (7.9%) in functional capacity after accounting for neurocognitive function and symptoms. Partial correlations indicated that accurately perceiving anger, in particular, was positively correlated with functional capacity. FAP for positive, negative, or neutral emotions were not related to social competence or social attainment. Our findings were consistent with prior literature suggesting negative emotions are related to functional capacity in schizophrenia. Furthermore, the observed relationship between perceiving anger and performance of everyday living skills is novel and warrants further exploration.

Self-evaluation affects one's own mental state, social interactions and everyday life. Mood, in turn, has an impact on self-evaluation. However, the influence of mood on self-evaluation at the neural level has barely been examined. In this fMRI study, the interaction of mood and self-perception was investigated in 20 healthy participants. Happy, sad and neutral music was presented while participants were instructed to immerse themselves in the mood of the music and to rate how well presented traits characterized themselves. In a lexical control condition, subjects had to count a specific letter in the word. Behavioral data reflected successful mood induction. While self-ascription of positive traits was unaffected by mood, self-ascription of negative characteristics was decreased by negative affect. A positive correlation was found between self-worth scores and the difference in the amount of self-ascribed positive versus negative traits during negative mood induction. At the neural level, amygdalo-hippocampal, superior and middle temporal structures were differently involved in self-evaluation (vs. lexical processing) depending on the mood. While activation of the amygdalo-hippocampal complex was found during sad in comparison to both happy and neutral mood, superior/middle temporal gyrus (STG/MTG) activation was only found when contrasting sad vs. neutral mood. Further, a correlation analysis with self-worth ratings revealed a positive relation to STG activation during self-ascription of trait adjectives in sad compared to neutral mood. Our results underscore the importance of the current emotional state for self-evaluation and identify some neural correlates of this effect. Our findings in healthy research participants suggest a compensatory mechanism during sad mood induction to maintain a positive self-image, which is supported by activation of limbic and fronto-temporal cortex. Studies in clinically depressed populations could reveal whether this compensatory mechanism is aberrant.

The phenomenon of gender incongruence is hypothesized to arise from a discrepant sexual development of the brain and the genitals, contingent on genetic and hormonal mechanisms. We aimed at visualizing transgender identity on a neurobiological level, assuming a higher functional similarity to individuals of the aspired rather than assigned sex. Implementing a gender perception paradigm featuring male and female voice stimuli, behavioral and functional imaging data of transmen were compared to men and women, and to transwomen, respectively. Men had decreased activation in response to voices of the other sex in regions across the frontoparietal and insular cortex, while the activation patterns of women and transmen were characterized by little or no differentiation between male and female voices. Further, transmen had a comparatively high discrimination performance for ambiguous male voices, possibly reflecting a high sensitivity for voices of the aspired sex. Comparing transmen and transwomen yielded only few differences in the processing of male compared to female voices. In the insula, we observed a pattern similar to that of men and women, the neural responses of the transgender group being in accordance with their gender identity rather than assigned sex. Notwithstanding the similarities found dependent on biological sex, the findings support the hypothesis of gender incongruence being a condition in which neural processing modes are partly incongruent with one's assigned sex.

Several studies report sex differences in sensitivity to gendered stimuli. We assume many of these to reflect differences as to the sex to which one feels attracted rather than to biological sex per se. Investigating voice perception, a function of high social relevance, we show that the behavioural and neural (BOLD) responses to male and female voices are mediated by sex and sexual orientation. In heterosexual men and women, we found an opposite-sex effect, reflected in higher classification accuracy for and a response bias towards voices of the other sex, while the effect became apparent as same-sex effect in homosexual men and women. Overall, sexual orientation had a greater impact in women than in men and homosexual women were closer to men in their behavioural responses to female voices. The activation patterns were similar for hetero- and homosexual men, both groups showing increased activation in response to male compared to female voices in regions distributed across the temporo-parietal and insular cortex. In contrast, women had increased activation in response to voices of the desired sex. It appears that both sex and sexual orientation impact on a function as basal as voice perception. Our results underline the need to assess sexual orientation in study participants if conclusions on sex differences shall be drawn. Many of the reported sex differences in behaviour and brain function might be mediated by sexual orientation and we encourage further research into the interplay between sex and sexual orientation.

Animal studies suggest a causal link between testosterone and aggression. However, in human research the exact role of this hormone is still unclear, having been linked to dominance and approach behavior rather than to aggression per se. In a social context, the induction of aggression might be confounded with dominance or status changes, which potentially influence the association between aggression and testosterone. The objective of the current study was to investigate the influence of testosterone on non-social aggression in a double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment including 90 healthy male participants. To this end, we developed an innovative paradigm in which participants were provoked by a malfunctioning joystick restraining them from a promised reward. As measures for aggression throughout the task the joystick amplitude was recorded and anger was assessed via emotional self-ratings. Participants reacted to the provocation with a significant shift to more negative emotions and increased implicit aggressive behavior, reflected in the force exerted to pull the joystick following provocation. Importantly, the study demonstrated first evidence for a modulating influence of testosterone on non-social aggression in males: Self-rated anger was significantly elevated in the testosterone group compared to the placebo group as a function of provocation. Testosterone administration did not significantly influence the implicit aggressive response. These findings demonstrate a potentiating effect of testosterone on provocation-related anger in a non-social context. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of disentangling different components of aggression and characterizing different influencing factors when inferring on hormonal effects.

Gender dysphoria (also known as "transsexualism") is characterized as a discrepancy between anatomical sex and gender identity. Research points towards neurobiological influences. Due to the sexually dimorphic characteristics of the human voice, voice gender perception provides a biologically relevant function, e.g. in the context of mating selection. There is evidence for a better recognition of voices of the opposite sex and a differentiation of the sexes in its underlying functional cerebral correlates, namely the prefrontal and middle temporal areas. This fMRI study investigated the neural correlates of voice gender perception in 32 male-to-female gender dysphoric individuals (MtFs) compared to 20 non-gender dysphoric men and 19 non-gender dysphoric women. Participants indicated the sex of 240 voice stimuli modified in semitone steps in the direction to the other gender. Compared to men and women, MtFs showed differences in a neural network including the medial prefrontal gyrus, the insula, and the precuneus when responding to male vs. female voices. With increased voice morphing men recruited more prefrontal areas compared to women and MtFs, while MtFs revealed a pattern more similar to women. On a behavioral and neuronal level, our results support the feeling of MtFs reporting they cannot identify with their assigned sex.

Testosterone can motivate human approach and avoidance behavior. Specifically, the conscious recognition of and implicit reaction to angry facial expressions is influenced by testosterone. The study tested whether exogenous testosterone modulates the personal distance (PD) humans prefer in a social threat context.

As many paths lead to aggression, understanding which situations and which person-specific traits facilitate or impede aggressive behavior is crucial. Provocation is among one of the most frequently reported predictors of aggressive behavior. However, it remains unclear whether the reaction to provocation is universal across different forms of aggression and whether individuals differ in their reactivity to such signals. Using the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP), we investigated the influence of individual and contextual factors on physical and non-physical aggression in healthy men and women. The impact of trait aggression, sex, provocation, and the success of a competition against a fictitious opponent on aggressive behavior was examined in three different versions of the TAP. While equal provocation and punishment modalities were used in the first two versions, monetary deductions in the first and heat stimulus in the second study, the third experiment used non-physical provocation to trigger physical punishment. Trial-by-trial analyses revealed that provocation, independent of its specific nature, is a strong predictor for aggressive behavior, especially in highly aggressive participants. Although women initially showed less aggression than men, sex differences were diminished under prolonged, increasing provocation when provocation and punishment modality were identical. Only when modalities diverged, women, compared with men, were more hesitant to punish their opponent. These results, thus, extend evidence that women show lower levels of aggression under low provocation. However, high levels of provocation have similar effects on males' and females' reactive aggressive behavior across different forms of aggression. When competing for money, losing against the fictitious opponent was functioning as an additional provocative signal stimulating aggressive responses. Differences in aggressive responding have to be interpreted in the context of the specific type of provocation and aggression that is investigated since these modalities are shown to interact with individual characteristics.

Individual differences in traits such as impulsivity and processing of risk and reward have been linked to decision making and may underlie divergent decision making strategies. It is, however, unclear whether and how far individual differences in these characteristics jointly influence decision making. Here, we aimed to investigate the roles of skin conductance responses, a psychophysiological marker of risk processing and impulsivity, as assessed by the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale 11 on decision making. Forty-six healthy participants performed a modified version of the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART), where reward and explosion risk are manipulated separately. Participants are informed about whether they play a high versus low reward and high versus low explosion risk condition. The exact risk and reward contingencies are, however, unknown to participants. Participants were less risk-taking under high, compared to low explosion risk and under high reward, compared to low reward on the modified BART, which served as a validation of the paradigm. Risk-taking was negatively related to skin conductance responses under high explosion risk. This relationship was primarily driven by individuals with relatively high levels of impulsivity. However, impulsivity alone was not found to be related to decision making on the modified BART. These results extend evidence that skin conductance responses may guide decision making in situations, where participants are informed about risk level (high vs. low), which might be differentially moderated by different levels of impulsivity.

While general self-referential processes and their neural underpinnings have been extensively investigated with neuroimaging tools, limited data is available on sex differences regarding self- and other-referential processing. To fill this gap, we measured 17 healthy women and men who performed a self- vs. other-appraisal task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using gender-stereotypical adjectives. During the self-appraisal task, typical male (e.g., "dominant," "competitive") and female adjectives (e.g., "communicative," "sensitive") were presented and participants were asked whether these adjectives applied to themselves. During the other-appraisal task, a prototypical male (Brad Pitt) and female actor (Julia Roberts) was presented and participants were asked again to judge whether typical male and female adjectives applied to these actors. Regarding self-referential processes, women ascribed significantly more female compared to male traits to themselves. At the same time both women and men indicated a stronger desire to exhibit male over female traits. While fMRI did not detect general sex differences in the self- and other-conditions, some subtle differences were revealed between the sexes: both in right putamen and bilateral amygdala stronger gender-congruent activation was found which was however not associated with behavioral measures like the number of self-ascribed female or male attributes. Furthermore, sex hormone levels showed some associations with brain activation pointing to a different pattern in women and men. Finally, the self- vs. other-condition in general led to stronger activation of the anterior cingulate cortex while the other- vs. self-condition activated the right precuneus more strongly which is in line with previous findings. To conclude, our data lend support for subtle sex differences during processing of stereotypical gender attributes. However, it remains unclear whether such differences have a behavioral relevance. We also point to several limitations of this study including the small sample size and the lack of control for potentially different hormonal states in women.

The experience of stress is related to individual wellbeing and vulnerability to psychopathology. Therefore, understanding the determinants of individual differences in stress reactivity is of great concern from a clinical perspective. The functional promotor polymorphism of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR/rs25531) is such a factor, which has been linked to the acute stress response as well as the adverse effect of life stressors. In the present study, we compared the impact of two different stress induction protocols (Maastricht Acute Stress Test and ScanSTRESS) and the respective control conditions on affective ratings, salivary cortisol levels and cognitive performance. To this end, 156 healthy young males were tested and genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphism. While combined physiological and psychological stress in the MAST led to a greater cortisol increase compared to control conditions as well as the psychosocial ScanSTRESS, subjective stress ratings were highest in the ScanSTRESS condition. Stress induction in general affected working memory capacity but not response inhibition. Subjective stress was also influenced by 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 genotype with the high expression group showing lower stress ratings than lower expression groups. In line with previous research, we identified the low expression variant of the serotonin transporter gene as a risk factor for increased stress reactivity. While some dimensions of the human stress response may be stressor specific, cognitive outcomes such as working memory performance are influenced by stress in general. Different pathways of stress processing and possible underlying mechanisms are discussed.

Cognitive neuroscience research on semantics recognizes a distinction between categorical and associated relations. However, associations can be divided further, such as into part-whole and functional relations. We investigated the neural basis of both relations using a picture-word interference task in an fMRI study. While the left supramarginal gyrus and the right inferior temporal sulcus were activated by part-whole over functional relations, the same applies to the right parahippocampal complex contrasting the functional over part-whole relations. The small effect sizes of our analyses have to be interpreted with caution. While the parahippocampal complex might reflect global scene processing across objects, the inferior temporal sulcus might be involved in the perceptual encoding of object related knowledge and the supramarginal gyrus might represent a convergence zone which implements within object related perceptual features. The current study gives a first indication that the neural bases for part-whole and functional relations seem to be distinguishable.

The basis for different neural activations in response to male and female voices as well as the question, whether men and women perceive male and female voices differently, has not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the behavioral and neural correlates of gender-related voice perception in healthy male and female volunteers. fMRI data were collected while 39 participants (19 female) were asked to indicate the gender of 240 voice stimuli. These stimuli included recordings of 3-syllable nouns as well as the same recordings pitch-shifted in 2, 4 and 6 semitone steps in the direction of the other gender. Data analysis revealed a) equal voice discrimination sensitivity in men and women but better performance in the categorization of opposite-sex stimuli at least in men, b) increased responses to increasing gender ambiguity in the mid cingulate cortex and bilateral inferior frontal gyri, and c) stronger activation in a fronto-temporal neural network in response to voices of the opposite sex. Our results indicate a gender specific processing for male and female voices on a behavioral and neuronal level. We suggest that our results reflect higher sensitivity probably due to the evolutionary relevance of voice perception in mate selection.

Emotions are often encountered in a multimodal fashion. Consequently, contextual framing by other modalities can alter the way that an emotional facial expression is perceived and lead to emotional conflict. Whole brain fMRI data was collected when 35 healthy subjects judged emotional expressions in faces while concurrently being exposed to emotional (scream, laughter) or neutral (yawning) sounds. The behavioral results showed that subjects rated fearful and neutral faces as being more fearful when accompanied by screams than compared to yawns (and laughs for fearful faces). Moreover, the imaging data revealed that incongruence of emotional valence between faces and sounds led to increased activation in the middle cingulate cortex, right superior frontal cortex, right supplementary motor area as well as the right temporoparietal junction. Against expectations no incongruence effects could be found in the amygdala. Further analyses revealed that, independent of emotional valence congruency, the left amygdala was consistently activated when the information from both modalities was emotional. If a neutral stimulus was present in one modality and emotional in the other, activation in the left amygdala was significantly attenuated. These results indicate that incongruence of emotional valence in audiovisual integration activates a cingulate-fronto-parietal network involved in conflict monitoring and resolution. Furthermore in audiovisual pairing amygdala responses seem to signal also the absence of any neutral feature rather than only the presence of an emotionally charged one.