Gender differences in social reward anticipation

Social reward has been identified as a strong incentive for goal-directed behavior. The aim of the present study was to examine gender differences in neural mechanisms underlying the anticipation of social approval. Furthermore, gonadal steroid levels were examined to control for hormonal influences on reward anticipation. Seventeen male and 15 female heterosexual participants performed the „social incentive delay“ paradigm (Spreckelmeyer et al., 2009) functional magnet resonance imaging (fMRI) on a 3 Tesla scanner. In every trial a cue indicated potential reward (three types of happy face expressions with increasing intensity level). The color of the cue was varied indicating either a male or female face as potential reward. In order to receive reward a target button had to be pushed within a certain time window. fMRI recording during the anticipation phase revealed linearly increasing Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) activation with higher levels of anticipated reward for male and female faces. Accounting for sex of participants and sex of anticipated faces revealed a wider network of activations, including the NAcc, in men than women. Women, however, reacted more sensitive to anticipated opposite sex faces than men. Testosterone differenzially modulated responses in men and women.