Narrator: This is Science Today. There's been a lot of research
over the last four decades on how the brain stores memories of
emotional events better than memories of non-emotional events.
Dr. Larry Cahill, a neurobiologist at the University of
California, Irvine, says much of the research points to a small,
almond-shaped brain structure called the amygdala, which is
located on both sides of the brain, a couple inches in from the
ear. Cahill: Something about the amygdala kicking into gear
during and after an emotional event helps you remember it better
- that's the theory. And we have evidence for that not only from
animal studies, but from human studies as well. Narrator: Cahill
and his colleagues recently found that men and women seem to use
different sides of the amygdala to store emotional memories.
Cahill: If in fact the men's brains on average are processing
this information differently from the women's brains - say right
amygdala, left amygdala - just that. Well, somehow that's got to
be reflected in