Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital have found that women and men's brains handle stress differently that changes the way in which the respective sexes experience chronic diseases as depression, cardiovascular disease and autoimmune disorders, U. S. researchers report.

The findings appeared online on Jan. 13, in the Journal of Neuroscience.

In order to analyze the stress-triggering images for both the sexes, scientists used functional MRI to monitor the brain activity of healthy men and women.

The result claimed that brain activity in response to stress appeared similar in men compared with women at the beginning of the women's menstrual cycle. However, brain activity in response to stress was much higher in men, compared to that of the same women during ovulation.

The most significant variations were detected in brain regions that control the autonomic arousal response. The findings also revealed that gender differences in stress response circuitry occur because these are regulated by hormones.

"Mapping out sex-specific physiology in the brain will also provide the basis for the development of sex-specific treatments for these diseases", Goldstein said.