IntroductionThe study of psychobiology attempts to explain behavior in terms of physiological mechanisms. Previous research shows that women's and men's reactions differ when it comes to emotional stimuli (Campbell et al., 2002 & Orozco & Ehlers, 1998, cited in Hall, 2004). “Sex differences in functional activation patterns revealed by increased emotion processing demands” (Hall, Witelson, Szechtman, & Nahmias, 2004) investigated the effects of different emotional stimuli on brain activation patterns (Hall et al.). The study was divided into two experiments, both of which compared and contrasted the results between two different groups of eight women and eight men (Hall et al.). In the first experiment, patients performed three tasks: facial detection, identity matching, and emotion matching (Hall et al.). In the second experiment, a different group of eight women and eight men performed gender matching and emotion matching, with an additional auditory stimulus (Hall et al.). The results showed that sexual dimorphism was present in reactions between females and males (Hall et al.). This essay proposes to examine the psychobiological aspect of the studies, to identify the interesting and relevant results, and to analyze the key elements and the scientific rigor. Furthermore, it will explore possible future improvements of the study and highlight possible applications of the results. This essay will prove that the research paper is both relevant and interesting to psychobiology. Relevance to Psychobiology As mentioned previously, psychobiology studies psychological phenomena in terms of biological processes. Studies considered psychobiological must include both psychology and biology. The study focused on the middle of the article......2007) Age-related differences in human brain activity using a face and location matching task: an fMRI study. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disor, 24, 235-246. Hall, G., Witelson, S., Szechtman, H., and Nahmias, C. (2004). Sex differences in functional activation patterns revealed by increased emotion processing demands. NeuroReport, 15 (2), 219-223. Kirsch, I., Deacon, B., Huedo-Medina, T., Scoboria, A., Moore, T., and Johnson, B. (2008). Baseline severity and benefits of antidepressants: a meta-analysis of data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration. PloS Med, 5 (2). Position emission tomography. (1998, August 12). Retrieved October 6, 2008 from TRIUMF – Canadian National Particle and Nuclear Physics Laboratory: http://www.triumf.ca/welcome/petscan.htmlRajMohan, V. and Mohandas, E. (2007). The limbic system. Indian Journal of Psychiatry , 49 (2), 132-139.