Study Suggests Male And Female Brains React To Stress Differently

A new study has offered new evidence proving that male and female brains react to things differently. The researcher has found that an area of the brain involved in stress and keeping heart rate and blood pressure high is one that works differently in both genders.

According to Mail Online, researchers found that men and women had opposing responses in the right front of the insular cortex, which is the part of the brain mainly responsible for emotions, blood pressure control and self-awareness. This was discovered when experts measured brain activities using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during blood pressure trials.

Experts explained that the insular cortex has five main parts called Gyri, which have different roles.

The researchers found that the response of blood pressure in the right-side of the front gyrus showed an opposing pattern in each gender. Men showed a higher right-sided activation in the frontal area, while women showed a much lower response.

"This is such a critical brain area and we hadn't expected to find such strong differences between men and women's brains," said the study's lead author Paul Macey from University of California, Los Angeles.

Chennaionline.com also reported that this region, the front-right insula, is responsible for stress and keeping heart rate and blood pressure high. "It's possible the women had already activated this region because of psychological stress, so that when they did the physical test in the study, the brain region could not activate any more. However, it's also possible that this region is wired differently in men and women," Macey noted.

 "We have always thought that the 'normal' pattern was for this right-front insula region to activate more than other areas, during a task that raises blood pressure," added Macey. According to Indian Express, Macey explained the in earlier studies, male animals always had this 'normal' response, while healthy response for female animals seemed to be a lower right-sided activation.

"We believe that differences in the structure and function of the insula in men and women might contribute to different clinical symptoms in some medical disorders," Macey continued.