Women rate emotional images as more emotionally
stimulating than men do and are more likely to
remember them. However, there are no gender-related
differences in emotional appraisal as far as neutral
images are concerned.
These were the findings of a large-scale study by a
research team at the University of Basel that
focused on determining the gender-dependent
relationship between emotions, memory performance
and brain activity. The results will be published in
the latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
Brain activity when viewing negative emotional
images: red and yellow indicates the more active
areas of the brain when images are rated as highly
stimulating. Green indicates the areas that
specifically become more active in women (image: MCN,
University of Basel).
It is known that women often consider emotional
events to be more emotionally stimulating than men
do. Earlier studies have shown that emotions
influence our memory: the more emotional a situation
is, the more likely we are to remember it. This
raises the question as to whether women often
outperform men in memory tests because of the way
they process emotions. A research team from the
University of Basel's “Molecular and Cognitive
Neurosciences” Transfaculty Research Platform
attempted to find out.
With the help of 3,398 test subjects from four
sub-trials, the researchers were able to demonstrate
that females rated emotional image content –
especially negative content – as more emotionally
stimulating than their male counterparts did. In the
case of neutral images, however, there were no
gender-related differences in emotional appraisal.
In a subsequent memory test, female participants
could freely recall significantly more images than
the male participants. Surprisingly though, women
had a particular advantage over men when recalling
positive images. “This would suggest that
gender-dependent differences in emotional processing
and memory are due to different mechanisms,” says
study leader Dr Annette Milnik.
Increased brain activity
Using fMRI data from 696 test subjects, the
researchers were also able to show that stronger
appraisal of negative emotional image content by the
female participants is linked to increased brain
activity in motoric regions. “This result would
support the common belief that women are more
emotionally expressive than men,” explaines Dr Klara
Spalek, lead author of the study.
The findings also help to provide a better
understanding of gender-specific differences in
information processing. This knowledge is important,
because many neuropsychiatric illnesses also exhibit
gender-related differences.
The study is part of a research project led by
professors Dominique de Quervain and Andreas
Papassotiropoulos at the University of Basel, which
aims to increase the understanding of neuronal and
molecular mechanisms of human memory and thereby
facilitate the development of new treatments.
For more information
Universität Basel
The Journal of Neuroscience (2015)
Klara Spalek, Matthias Fastenrath, Sandra Ackermann,
Bianca Auschra, XDavid Coynel, Julia Frey, Leo
Gschwind, Francina Hartmann, Nadine van der Maarel,
Andreas Papassotiropoulos, Dominique de Quervain and
Annette Milnik
Sex-Dependent Dissociation between Emotional
Appraisal and Memory: A Large-Scale Behavioral and
fMRI Study
doi: 10.1523/jneurosci.2384-14.2015
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