Sex differences in interoception and mental health: an investigation across the menstrual cycle

许多常见的心理健康状况（如焦虑和抑郁）在女性中比男性更常见，当女性患有精神疾病时，其表现往往与男性不同。然而，精神疾病的性别差异的基础尚不清楚。最近的研究表明，感知身体内部状态的能力（例如感觉心跳;“内感受”）可能对心理健康和关键能力（例如情绪处理）很重要。重要的是，内感受的性别差异是有据可查的;与男性相比，女性在感知内感受信号方面不太准确，但报告更多地关注内感受信号。鉴于已知的内感受和心理健康之间的联系，问题仍然存在于内感受的性别差异在多大程度上与心理健康的性别差异有关，以及为什么男性和女性在内感受方面存在差异。在女性中，身体和荷尔蒙变化的时期（例如月经周期，怀孕，更年期）通常与情绪和心理健康的变化有关。然而，身体和激素的变化（例如在月经周期期间）是否会破坏内感受尚不清楚。该项目将研究内感受对整个月经周期的心理健康和情绪的贡献，并研究内感受训练是否可以改善男性和女性的心理健康和情绪。这项研究将进一步加深我们对精神疾病性别差异的理解，并最终有助于在精神疾病发生时更好地识别和治疗。

Many common mental health conditions (e.g. anxiety and depression) are more common in women than men and when women experience mental illness it often presents differently to men. However, what underlies sex differences in mental illness is unclear. Recent research suggests that the ability to perceive the internal state of your body (e.g. feeling your heartbeat; 'interoception') might be important for mental health and key abilities (e.g. emotion processing). Importantly, sex differences in interoception are well documented; compared to men, women are less accurate at perceiving interoceptive signals and yet report more attention to interoceptive signals. Given known links between interoception and mental health, questions remain regarding the extent to which sex differences in interoception relate to sex differences in mental health and why men and women differ with respect to interoception. In women, periods of physical and hormonal change (e.g. the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, menopause) are often associated with changes in mood and mental health. However, whether physical and hormonal change (e.g. during the menstrual cycle) disrupts interoception is not yet known. This project will examine the contribution of interoception to mental health and mood across the menstrual cycle and examine whether interoceptive training improves mental health and mood in both men and women. This research will further our understanding of sex differences in mental illness, and may ultimately help to identify and treat mental illness better when it occurs.