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Worry may ramp up activity in the brain, causing burnout.
Worry may ramp up activity in the brain, causing burnout.
The findings could help in the identification and treatment of anxiety disorders, according to the Michigan State University scientists who conducted the study.
"This may help predict the development of anxiety issues later in life for girls," said Jason Moser, a Michigan State psychologist and the lead author of the study. "It's one more piece of the puzzle for us to figure out why women in general have more anxiety disorders."
Women are twice as likely than men to have anxiety disorders. To find out why, Moser and his colleagues used an electrode cap to measure electrical activity in the brain as 79 female college students and 70 male college students completed an easy task.
The volunteers were asked to identify the middle letter in a series of letters. In easy versions, all of the letters were the same ("FFFFF"), and in more difficult versions, the middle letter was different ("EEFEE").
The volunteers also filled out questionnaires about how much they worried.
The data revealed that anxious women had more electrical activity in their brains during the tasks compared with their chill counterparts; anxious men didn't show any excess activity. Even so, on the easy versions of the experiment, worried men and women performed about the same. But as the test got more difficult, these worried women did worse, suggesting that worry got in the way of doing the task well, Moser said in a statement. In men, self-reported worry wasn't linked to busier brains.
"Anxious girls' brains have to work harder to perform tasks because they have distracting thoughts and worries," Moser said. "As a result their brains are being kind of burned out by thinking so much, which might set them up for difficulties in school. We already know that anxious kids - and especially anxious girls - have a harder time in some academic subjects such as math."
The researchers are now investigating whether the feminizing hormone estrogen is to blame for this overactive brain response. They detailed their results May 29 in the International Journal of Psychophysiology.
This is where the doctors and scientist show the emptiness of their souls. A cold scientific analysis of women like they have a Chevy connected the diagnostic computer looking for a fault code so some part or other can be replaced and everything will be fine. Of course their "treatment" will be a very expensive, addictive prescription drug.
Women are different than men. Men tend to focus on one thing at a time while women are multi-taskers. Men have always been responsible for the safety and security of their women and children. Men have traditionally been the providers which often meant hours out hunting often in an altered state of hyper awareness to ensure a successful hunt. The responsibilities and obligations of men have changed us over time.
Women have traditionally raised the children and tended the campfires and socialized with the other women, children and elders while doing all of the domestic tasks required to keep a family in business. Women were sheltered by their men and this gave them the security to develop a different mental architecture that reflects the tasks and responsibilities of women. This pattern is so old and persistent it is coded in our DNA.
Women are under a great deal of stress today. Women are far less violent yet are more likely to suffer violence to at the hands of men. Women who work tend to make half as much money as men. Marriage once a foundation of our civilization is now a roll of the dice with 50% ending in divorce. The economy is collapsing and so is the environment etc, etc. Perhaps women at an intuitive level are more aware to the problems we are facing and this expresses itself as nervousness and increased brain wave activity. The solution is not drugs.
This reminds me of an old bumper sticker, "If you can keep a cool head when everyone around you is loosing it, perhaps you don't understand the situation."
Our civilization needs to be reconfigured to reflect our basic human needs and aspirations. The security of hearth and home where we can raise our kids and grow old without fear of economic depredations, war or tyranny. This needs to be the rule for every human being on the planet, everyone included, no exceptions.