Male and female brains really ARE wired differently

没错，男女大脑真的不一样

It has long been said that the male and female brain is wired differently.

我们一直都说男女大脑是不一样的。

Now, Swiss researchers have uncovered another example of how it really is.

如今，瑞士研究人员发现了这一论断的另一个实例。

They found women rate emotional images as more emotionally stimulating than men do and are more likely to remember them.

他们发现，女性比男性更容易在情绪上受感性类图像的刺激，也更容易记住它们。

The large-scale study by a research team at the University of Basel focused on determining the gender-dependent relationship between emotions, memory performance and brain activity.

巴塞尔大学的一个研究小组进行了一项大规模的研究，主要探究男性和女性的情感、记忆力表现和大脑活动之间的关系。

'This would suggest that gender-dependent differences in emotional processing and memory are due to different mechanisms,' says study leader Dr Annette Milnik.

该研究的负责人Annette Milnnik博士说：“这表明，情感处理和记忆上的性别差异是由不同的机制造成的。”

It is known that women often consider emotional events to be more emotionally stimulating than men do.

我们都知道，女性比男性更容易在情绪上受情感类事件的刺激。

Earlier studies have shown that emotions influence our memory: the more emotional a situation is, the more likely we are to remember it.

早期研究显示，情绪会影响我们的记忆力：越感性的情况，我们越容易记住。

This raises the question as to whether women often outperform men in memory tests because of the way they process emotions.

这就引出了一个问题，女性之所以在记忆力测试中表现得比男性好，是否和他们处理情绪的方式有关。

A research team from the University of Basel's 'Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences' Transfaculty Research Platform attempted to find out.

巴塞尔大学Transfaculty“分子和认知神经科学”研究平台的一个研究小组尝试从研究中找出答案。

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.

通过对四个分项测验中的3398名对象进行测试，研究人员证实，与被试中的男性相比，女性在对待感性类图像内容，尤其是消极内容时，更容易在情绪上受其影响。

In the case of neutral images, however, there were no gender-related differences in emotional appraisal.

但是，当涉及到中性图像内容时，在情感评价上没有太大的性别差异。

In a subsequent memory test, female participants could freely recall significantly more images than the male participants.

在随后进行的记忆测试中，女性参与者明显能比男性参与者回忆起更多的图像。

Surprisingly though, women had a particular advantage over men when recalling positive images.

但让人意外的是，女性在回忆积极类图像内容时，特别占有优势。

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.

对696名被试的功能性磁共振成像数据进行分析后，研究人员也能证明，女性参与者对消极图像内容作出的强烈评价与大脑肌肉运动区活动的增加是有关系的。

'This result would support the common belief that women are more emotionally expressive than men,' explained Dr Klara Spalek, lead author of the study.

该研究的主要作者Klara Spalek博士解释说：“这个结论也为女性比男性更情绪化这一普遍观念提供了依据。”

The findings also help to provide a better understanding of gender-specific differences in information processing.

这些发现也有助于更好地了解信息处理中的性别差异。

This knowledge is important, because many neuropsychiatric illnesses also exhibit gender-related differences.

这一认知之所以很重要，是因为很多神经疾病也表现出了性别差异。