How ovarian and stress hormones interact with empathic processing abilities – a focus on female mental health

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Veronika Engert; Professorin Dr. Julia Sacher
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology ; Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 534642099

Key components of social processing, such as empathy, compassion and perspective taking, build the foundation of successful human interaction. These skills are essential for navigating challenges in the family and professional environment, as well as in dealing with global political, economic, and environmental crises. Despite their adaptive nature, some researchers argue that certain social skills, like empathy, have “a dark side”, and can lead to exhaustion and burnout. The negative side effects of empathy may be exacerbated in some populations. Research indicates that different immutable factors such as sex and stress have an influence on empathic processing. Thus, females score higher than males in self-reports of empathy and related capacities, and show higher levels of competence and motivation for empathic accuracy. Additionally, a neural basis for sex differences in empathy has been revealed. Regarding the influence of stress on empathic processing, studies show interactions of sex and stress, with inconsistent results to date. We argue that a lack of differentiation between biological sex differences and socially learned gender roles could be one reason for current inconsistencies. While it is impossible to completely disentangle biological from social aspects, it is possible to apply best practice guidelines regarding sex and gender roles.Overall, our project aims to pioneer the testing of sex differences – the biologically determined characteristics of males and females – in empathy-related processes. Because stress has grown into an omnipresent phenomenon in modern society, we will additionally investigate the role of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. In detail, we will focus on how stress-induced activation of the HPA axis changes from the follicular phase to ovulation, to the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, and how these responses, when based on current best-practice for menstrual cycle-monitoring, compare to those of male individuals and females with blunted endogenous ovarian hormone levels. Our second aim, using a rigid experimental manipulation of HPA axis activiy in the laboratory, will test how ovarian hormones alone and in combination with stress and stress-induced cortisol release affect empathic processing. Focusing specifically on female health, our third (and subordinate) aim is to explore the role of ovarian and stress hormone-dependent empathic processing patterns in shaping depressed mood. In this synergistically rich cooperation, the two principal investigators will offer young scientists training across two laboratory sites. Our results may yield fundamental insight into female mental health. If we succeed in identifying robust changes in empathy across the menstrual cycle, we will lay the groundwork to tailor empathy-based interventions to individual hormonal states, thus taking the next important stepping stone towards a female-targeted mental health approach to stress-related disease.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants