London, Nov 30 (IANS) Men and women respond differently to positive or negative situations, says a new study.
Men may direct more attention to sensory aspects of emotional stimuli for taking action, said Andrzej Urbanik, radiology professor at Jagiellonian University Hospital (JUH) Krakow, Poland.

“Women direct more attention to the feelings engendered by emotional stimuli,” he added.

Urbanik and colleagues recruited 40 right-handed volunteers, 21 men and 19 women, aged between 18 and 36 years.

Volunteers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while viewing pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), comprising thousands of slides of various objects and images from ordinary life.

The images were displayed in two runs. For the first run, only negative pictures were shown. For the second run, only positive pictures were shown.

“The brain activation seen in the women might indicate stronger involvement of the neural (nerve cells) circuit, which is associated with identification of emotional stimuli,” Urbanik said.

“The more pronounced activation of the insular cortex in the men might (bring about) elevated heart rate or increased sweating, that accompany watching emotional material.”

(Insular cortex gauges the physiological state of the entire body and then generates subjective feelings that can bring about actions).

“In men, the negative images on the slides… might signal that when confronted with dangerous situations, men are more likely than women to take action,” said Urbanik, according to a JUH release.

These findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).