Men's mental well-being: A psychophysiological study of interactions between empathy, stress, and sex hormones
October 2023 - April 2024. Leader of the group: R. Grikšienė.
As society faces socio-cultural challenges, issues such as mental health, addiction and suicide risks, are gaining increasing attention. Although anxiety disorders and depression are diagnosed twice as often in women as in men, over ¾ of the more than 43,000 suicides in the EU each year are committed by men, and in Lithuania, male suicides are about four times more common than female suicides. Mental well-being is strongly influenced by a person's individual biological (age, gender, hormones) and socio-emotional characteristics. The common perception that emotionality is an 'unmanly' trait may have an impact on men's tendency to repress their emotions, more pronounced inability to recognise and describe their own emotions, their reluctance to communicate negative experiences, and even on their negative attitudes towards psychological support. In addition, testosterone and estrogen have been found to be associated with emotion processing and empathy, and the hormones released during stress can both improve and worsen emotion recognition and/or expression.
The results of this study may contribution to the fundamental knowledge of the interactions between the factors studied and have practical applications in the development of targeted interventions to improve men's mental well-being. Increased attention to factors related to men's emotional well-being can make a significant contribution to addressing global challenges such as discrimination, suicide, public safety and old age.
The Research Council of Lithuania, Agreement No. P-ST-23-309, 2023 10 – 2024 05
Rhythms in human body: the search for relationships between brain oscillations and fluctuations of sex hormones
“Rhythms in human body: the search for relationships between brain oscillations and fluctuations of sex hormones”, from the 1st june 2023 to the 15th december, 2023.
Main activities:
- June 2, 2023. Project start meeting, will be organized at Vilnius University, Life Sciences Center and online.
- June 2 - July 3, 2023. Final steps of the study, analysis of behavioral data, assessment of sex hormones in collected samples. Online training „EEG preprocessing and frequency analysis“.
- July 4 – 25, 2023 PhD and Master students visits at University of Münster to learn proposed EEG data analysis methods.
- September 20-22, 2023. Workshop “EEG analysis” will be organized at Vilnius University.
This project of the Baltic-German University Liaison Office is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic Germany.
More information about the project: http://www.hochschulkontor.lv/en/projekti/atbalstitie-projekti/rhythms-in-human-body-the-search-for-relationships-between-brain-oscillations-and-fluctuations-of-sex-hormones/
Lateralization of cerebral hemispheres in foreign language and working memory processing
“Lateralization of cerebral hemispheres in foreign language and working memory processing” (code 09.3.3.-LMT-K-712-22-0170).
Project duration - 2020-11-03-2021-04-30; Research supervisor - VU GMC Assoc. Dr. Ramunė Grikšienė; Student - VU GMC Master's student of the second year of the Neurobiology study programme Indrė Pretkelytė.
The project aims to assess the functional lateralization of human foreign language and working memory processing using a simple and easily accessible psychophysical method of functional lateralization assessment based on the half visual field paradigm.
Functional lateralisation of the brain is the distribution of various cognitive functions between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Determining the functional lateralisation of the human brain is important for scientific and clinical research and for some therapeutic approaches. The most reliable method for assessing functional lateralisation, functional magnetic resonance imaging, requires significant financial, human and time resources and is therefore not widely available. In this study, we aim to assess functional lateralization in human foreign language and working memory processing using an alternative, simple and readily available, psychophysical method of functional lateralization assessment based on the half visual field paradigm. The study is international in scope, using an identical methodology, and has been carried out in different countries around the world to assess foreign language functional lateralisation in different linguistic groups. In the Lithuanian study, in addition to language, we will also assess the lateralisation of working memory. In addition, to strengthen the reliability of the psychophysical data, we will conduct a parallel electrophysiological study in which an electroencephalogram will be recorded while people perform tasks. By correlating behavioural psychophysical data with the electrical activity of the human brain, we will be able to better assess the reliability of the paradigm.
The processing of highly salient and biologically relevant emotional stimuli: gender differences and relationship to sex steroids
"The processing of highly salient and biologically relevant emotional stimuli: gender differences and relationship to sex steroids", from the 1st June 2020 to the 01th November, 2020
In collaboration with colleagues from Tübingen (Germany) and Tartu (Estonia) Universities our group is implementing a project which the main goal is knowledge sharing and collaboration in the area of emotion research and psychoneuroendocrinology between the project partners. Hence, emotion perception and regulation research will take place at the Vilnius University; we will organize project partners’ meetings, emotion research workshops and results presenatation in various conferences including one organized by the Lithuanian Neurocscience Association.
All partners will collaborate to design and conduct a reseach to evaluate how men and women recognize and regulate emotions. For this purpose both subjective and objective (brain imaging) methods will be used. Knowing that sex steroid balance has a signficant effect on emotions, women who use hormonal contraceptives will be one of the focus points.
Collaboration between partners will be maintained both through live meetings and remote work. First results and existing knowledge on the topic will be presented during two events in November 2020 – workshop “Emotion perception and regulation” and the 12th Conference of the Lithuanian Neuroscience Association.
More information about the project: http://www.hochschulkontor.lv/en/projekti/atbalstitie-projekti/the-processing-of-highly-salient-and-biologically-relevant-emotional-stimuli-gender-differences-and-relationship-to-sex-steroids/
Past events:
WEBINAR From emotion perception to regulation: workshop on socio-emotional functions.
WHERE. Online (link will be sent to registered e-mail) or in Life science center, Vilnius University, Sauletekio ave. 7, R102. More information abouth this event here.
REGISTRATION to Webinar and/or Public event: https://bit.ly/2GC9mkM
22 – 23 June 2020. Project start meeting, was organized in Vilnius University, Life Sciences Center and online.
Cooperation
PhD Jūratė Aleknavičiūtė and PhD Astrid Kamperman, Erasmus University, The Netherlands.
Prof. Birgit Derntl, University of Tübingen, Germany.
Dr. Helen Uusberg and Dr. Andero Uusberg, University of Tartu, Estonia.
Prof. Markus Hausmann, Durham University, United Kingdom.
Dr. Elena Čėsnaitė, Institute of Psychology, University of Münster, Germany.
Dr. Eglė Mazgelytė, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Lithuania.
PhD candidate Melanie Kowalczyk SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of Psychology, Poland.
PhD student Gintarė Dagytė-Kavoliūnė, faculty of economics and business administration, Vilnius University, Lithuania.
PhD student Dovilė Mikučionytė, Faculty of Phylosophy, Institute of Psychology, Vilnius University, Lithuania.
Dr. Violeta Cimalanskaitė-Kazlauskienė, Faculty of Phylosophy, Institute of Psychology, Vilnius University, Lithuania.