Final answer:
There are gender-related differences in sympathetic nervous system activation in response to stress and arousal, although these differences are not extremely pronounced. Patterns of sympathetic nervous system activation show that men and women experience variations in heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, and specificity of arousal, thus not being invariant across genders.
Step-by-step explanation:
The activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) caused by stress or arousal does indeed vary by sex, though this disparity is not extremely marked. While both men and women experience an increase in heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure during arousal, there are differences in the dynamics of these changes, as well as in the specificity of arousal. Males generally experience specific arousal with a more pronounced change in these physiological measures, and females tend to show non-specific arousal with variations in intensity and duration that differ from males’. Hence, the patterns of SNS activation are not strictly invariant across genders.
Research, such as that by Sherwin (1988), has delved into the role of androgen in human male and female sexual behavior and its influence on arousal responses. Additionally, studies have shown that brain activation patterns during visually evoked sexual arousal can differ between homosexual and heterosexual men (Hu et al., 2008), suggesting that there is a complex interplay between gender and sexual orientation in SNS response patterns.
Understanding the Sympathetic Nervous System Activation
The SNS is part of the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body for 'fight or flight' situations. Activation of this system leads to physiological changes that were critical for our ancestors’ survival, such as pupil dilation, increased heart rate and blood pressure, and adrenaline release. The specifics of these responses, including the sexual arousal response, exhibit some variation between men and women.