ESTRADIOL EFFECT ON BRAIN ACTIVIATION TO EMOTIONAL STIMULI IN OLDER WOMEN

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Some studies have suggested that estrogen administration in postmenopausal women may alter mood after exposure to psychosocial stress or emotional stimuli. This study will investigate the effects of estrogen on emotion and associated brain activity. This involves administering estrogen and then detecting areas of brain activation during an emotional arousal test using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Subjects will consist of 20 postmenopausal women, age 50+, randomized to either estrogen or placebo for three months. Before and after randomization subjects will perform a negative emotional arousal test in the fMRI scanner, during which they see negative and neutral words and pictures and are asked to look at, remember and subjectively rate the aversiveness of the stimuli. This will help us determine if estrogen administration changes the way you respond to emotional stimuli both subjectively and at the level of the brain.