A study from the University of Buffalo (USA) published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry reveals that women are more resistant to chronic stress because estrogens – the female hormones par excellence – protect them in this type of situation. In their experiments with rats exposed to periodic episodes of stress for a week, they found that, while the males saw their short-term memory diminished, at the same stress levels the females did not show any alteration in their ability to remember.
According to the authors, short-term memory disorders indicate an alteration in the activity of the glutamate receptor in the prefrontal cortex , the brain region that controls working memory, attention, decision-making, emotions and other processes. "higher" cognitive skills. While experiments revealed that in females the glutamate receptor remained intact despite stress, except if estrogen production was manipulated in the brain, in which case they began to respond like males and suffered the same damaging effects of stress on his memory. Simultaneously, if estrogen was introduced into the brains of stressed males, they kept their memory intact.
