Sylvie Majorova

On the Proximate and Ultimate Explanations of Sex Differences in Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders

BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY
ABSTRACT

Keywords: anxiety, anxiety disorders, sex differences, evolutionary explanation, testosterone


Received: August 7, 2022
Revision recieved: September 3, 2022
Accepted: September 10, 2022
Published: October 4, 2022

INTRODUCTION

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

PROXIMATE MECHANISMS

ULTIMATE MECHANISMS

INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMENTARY

NATURAL SCIENCES

Sex difference in anxiety and anxiety-related behaviour: Insights from animal studies
Edward Yuankai He
Christ’s College, University of Cambridge

The current male bias in psychiatric preclinical studies significantly deviates from the female-biased susceptibility to anxiety in humans, and the discontinuity of such sex differences across species will determine the translatability of animal studies. This article examines behavioural, anatomical, and functional continuity and discrepancies across rodent, non-human primates (NHP) and human studies, and finds the translational validity of rodent studies rather limited by various discrepancies. Conversely, NHP models are phylogenetically, behaviourally, and functionally more closely related to the human model especially in sex differences, which highlights their importance in upcoming preclinical research. 


REFERENCES