Ability Perception and Sex Differences in Cardiovascular Response to Behavioral Challenge

本项目研究了在心血管（CV）对应激反应中观察到的性别差异。最常见的性别效应是男性收缩压反应性大于女性。然而，一些研究产生了相反的CV反应模式，另一些研究仅在某些任务上产生了CV性别效应，还有一些研究根本没有产生CV性别效应。关于CV应答的性别差异在何处、如何以及为何存在差异的问题在科学上很重要，而且也具有实际意义，因为慢性高CV应答被怀疑会导致CV疾病的发生，而男性发生CV疾病的风险增加。目前的项目是基于CV性别效应的感知能力分析，该分析始于这样一个假设，即女性和男性往往在他们对某些任务的能力方面存在差异，但在他们对其他任务的能力方面并没有差异。然后，分析应用最近的努力和CV反应模型，以确定条件下，不同类型的CV性别差异应该和不应该出现。除了从理论上阐明长期困扰研究科学家的CV发现外，拟议的实验还应提供有关基本感知能力/CV反应关系的重要新证据，并提供一个特殊的机会来比较与之相关的不同理论观点。

This project investigates sex differences that have been observed in cardiovascular (CV) response to stress. The most common sex effect is greater systolic blood pressure responsivity in men than in women. However, some studies have yielded an opposite CV response pattern, others have yielded CV sex effects only on certain tasks, and still others have yielded no CV sex effects at all. Questions of where, how, and why the sexes differ in CV response are scientifically important, and also of practical concern because chronically high CV responses are suspected to contribute to the development of CV disease, for which men are at increased risk. The current project is based on a perceived ability analysis of CV sex effects, which begins with the assumption that women and men tend to differ in how capable they feel with regard to some tasks, but tend not to differ in how capable they feel with regard to other tasks. The analysis then applies a recent model of effort and CV response to identify conditions under which CV sex differences of different types should and should not emerge. In addition to shedding theoretical light on CV findings that have puzzled research scientists for some time, the proposed experiments should provide important new evidence regarding the fundamental perceived-ability/CV-response relation and afford a special opportunity to compare different theoretical views that pertain to it.