Gender Differences And Integration Mechanisms In The Processing Of Facial And Vocal Attractiveness

Due to the complex nature of attractiveness itself,academic exploration of attractiveness is still in initial stages.While researchers have attempted to dissect gender issues of attractiveness from the perspectives of physiology,psychology and neuroscience,whether and in what ways there are gender differences in the processing of facial and vocal attractiveness needs to be clarified further.Besides,although previous researchers have explored the integration mechanism in visual and auditory channels from the perspective of emotion and identity information,the question around the integration mechanism of attractiveness remains unclear.Therefore,this thesis aims at testing the gender differences and integration mechanism while processing facial and vocal attractiveness by using the ERP and f MRI techniques,respectively.Experiment 1 examined gender differences while processing facial and vocal attractiveness,by adopting an Oddball paradigm which usually elicit the MMN component and P3 component.By presenting same-and opposite-sex faces（facial task）and voices（vocal task）to subjects of different genders,the gender differences were examined.The results revealed that:（1）high attractive stimuli evoked larger waves of MMN and P3 components of subjects than unattractive stimuli in both facial and vocal tasks;（2）in the vocal task,male voices induced weaker a MMN than female voices as a whole.Besides,unattractive male voices induced weaker a MMN than unattractive female voices.In addition,attractive female voices induced larger P3 than unattractive female voices for female but not male subjects.Besides,attractive male voices induced larger P3 than unattractive male voices for male but not female subjects;（3）in the facial task,the attractive female faces induced larger v MMN of subjects than unattractive female faces,while no significant differences were found on male faces.This suggests that inherent differences of physical attributes influence the perception processing of attractive voices and faces for both genders.Besides,attractive male faces induced larger P3 than unattractive male faces,but no significant differences found for female faces.In addition,female subjects induced larger P3 effects than male subjects overall.And,unattractive female faces induced larger P3 than unattractive male faces,suggesting that the cognitive processing of attractiveness of subjects（especially of female subjects）is shaped by the competitive pressures of same-sex.Experiment 2 used an f MRI technique,combined with a Stroop-like paradigm,to examine the integration mechanisms of（facial and vocal）attractiveness information.By asking subjects to judge the attractiveness of faces（presented in visual channel）,the attractiveness of voices（presented in auditory channel）,and the attractiveness of voices over the attractiveness of faces（presented in audiovisual channel）,respectively,it was found that:1)the "facilitation effect" : more brain regions in the superior temporal gyrus（bilaterally）and extended to the precentral gyrus and temporal pole when participants processed low attractiveness information in the audiovisual channel than the mono-auditory channel;2)the‘congruent-discongruent’ effect: when high attractive voices were presented,the congruence condition（i.e.,high-attractive voice and high-attractive face condition）of auditory channel activated the insula,superior temporal gyrus,middle cingulate gyrus,precuneus,precentral gyrus,and dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus more than the incongruent condition（i.e.,high-attractive voice and low-attractive face condition）.It was shown that even when subjects were asked to judge only vocal attractiveness but ignore facial attractiveness,they were still able to integrate attractiveness information by activating brain areas related to information integration,attention,conflict detection and executive control.In summary,the following findings were obtained:（1）The results of the passive Oddball task showed that both male and female subjects were more able to detect changes in highly attractive stimuli and then invest more cognitive resources in them,compared to low attractive ones.Besides,the inherent differences of physical attributes（e.g.,the glottal configuration and proportion of face features）influence the perception processing of attractive voices and faces for both genders.Finally,the cognitive processing of attractiveness is shaped by the competitive pressures originated from the same-sex.（2）The results of the Stroop-like task show that even when subjects were asked to judge the vocal attractiveness and ignore the facial attractiveness,integration of attractiveness information still activated brain areas related to information integration,attention,conflict detection and executive control.