The DOI matches its Crossref record; 131 of the 133 references it cites were found in a registry or an index, and 2 are not checked yet.
Menstrual cycle influence on cognitive function and emotion processing—from a reproductive perspective
Open accessAbstract
The menstrual cycle has attracted research interest ever since the 1930s. For many researchers the menstrual cycle is an excellent model of ovarian steroid influence on emotion, behavior, and cognition. Over the past years methodological improvements in menstrual cycle studies have been noted, and this review summarizes the findings of methodologically sound menstrual cycle studies in healthy women. Whereas the predominant hypotheses of the cognitive field state that sexually dimorphic cognitive skills that favor men are improved during menstrual cycle phases with low estrogen and that cognitive skills that favor women are improved during cycle phases with increased estrogen and/or progesterone, this review has not found sufficient evidence to support any of these hypotheses. Mental rotation has gained specific interest in this aspect, but a meta-analysis yielded a standardized mean difference in error rate of 1.61 (95% CI -0.35 to 3.57), suggesting, at present, no favor of an early follicular phase improvement in mental rotation performance. Besides the sexually dimorphic cognitive skills, studies exploring menstrual cycle effects on tasks that probe prefrontal cortex function, for instance verbal or spatial working memory, have also been reviewed. While studies thus far are few, results at hand suggest improved performance at times of high estradiol levels. Menstrual cycle studies on emotional processing, on the other hand, tap into the emotional disorders of the luteal phase, and may be of relevance for women with premenstrual disorders. Although evidence at present is limited, it is suggested that emotion recognition, consolidation of emotional memories, and fear extinction is modulated by the menstrual cycle in women. With the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging, several studies report changes in brain reactivity across the menstrual cycle, most notably increased amygdala reactivity in the luteal phase. Thus, to the extent that behavioral changes have been demonstrated over the course of the menstrual cycle, the best evidence suggests that differences in sexually dimorphic tasks are small and difficult to replicate. However, emotion-related changes are more consistently found, and are better associated with progesterone than with estradiol such that high progesterone levels are associated with increased amygdala reactivity and increased emotional memory.
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“The results are in line with the conclusions of researchers who argued that cognitive performance does not change throughout the cycle [10,28–32,34].”
From Menstrual cycle effects on cognitive performance: A meta-analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [34]
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“one prior meta-analysis that examined a narrow set of cognitions using similar methods (mental rotation tasks) also did not find significant cycle differences [34].”
From Menstrual cycle effects on cognitive performance: A meta-analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [34]
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“Sample sizes are typically small [27,34], which limits generalizability of any one study.”
From Menstrual cycle effects on cognitive performance: A meta-analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [34]
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Cites
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“Besides mental rotation, spatial tests can also broadly be categorized into tasks that evaluate spatial perception and spatial visualization, and among the latter navigation tests and object location test are included (Linn and Petersen, 1985).”
BackgroundSerotonin transporter genetic variation and the response of the human amygdala.
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“This is in parallel to the increased emotion-induced amygdala reactivity found in non-depressed, non-anxious healthy carriers of the short version of the serotonin transporter promoter length polymorphism (Hariri et al., 2002; Fakra et al., 2009).”
BackgroundMen at risk: occupation and male infertility.
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The Neurocircuitry of Fear, Stress, and Anxiety Disorders
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“Being one of the core structures in the fear network (Shin and Liberzon, 2010) the sensitivity in the amygdala to changes in ovarian steroid hormones across the menstrual cycle fits nicely with the increased susceptibility to anxiety and depressive symptoms in the luteal phase.”
BackgroundKirschbaum, C., Kudielka, B. M., Gaab, J., Schommer, N. C., & Hellhammer, D. H. (1999) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/00006842-199903000-00006 · Cited by 1,890
The Angular Gyrus: Multiple Functions and Multiple Subdivisions
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“Angular gyrus is involved not only in verbal processing but also in spatial judgment (Chen et al., 2012; Seghier, 2013) and according to the authors, the increased reactivity may reflect an increased need to recruit this area to solve the task at hand during the luteal phase (Schoning et al., 2007;…”
BackgroundProduction and Actions of Estrogens
Gruber, C. J., Tschugguel, W., Schneeberger, C., & Huber, J. C. (2002) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmra000471 · Cited by 1,091 · cited 1×
“…estradiol receptors (ERα and ERβ) and the progesterone receptors (PRA and PRB) are highly expressed in brain areas associated with reproduction, cognitive function, and emotional processing such as the hypothalamus and the limbic system (for review, see Gruber et al., 2002; Brinton et al., 2008).”
Background
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- 2010, Clinical Gynecologic Endocrinology and Infertility
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Estrogen, Stress, and Depression: Cognitive and Biological Interactions
Albert, K. M., & NEWHOUSE, P. A. (2019) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050718-095557 · Cited by 373
Kundaković, M., & Rocks, D. (2022) · Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2022.101010 · Cited by 356
“…dynamically impact female brain morphology (Dubol et al., 2021; Woolley et al., 1990), function (Albert et al., 2015; Marrocco and McEwen, 2016; Sundstrom Poromaa and Gingnell, 2014), and neurochemistry (Barth et al., 2015), and are likely contributors to female-specific risks for…”
Toffoletto, S., Lanzenberger, R. R., Gingnell, M., Poromaa, I. S., & Comasco, E. (2014) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.07.025 · Cited by 331
“…emotional and cognitive processes. owever, there seems to be a scarcity of evidences from ehavioral studies toward hypothesized menstrual cycle nd oral contraceptives influences on emotion recognition, onsolidation of emotional memories, and fear extinction Sundström-Poromaa and Gingnell, 2014).”
InfluentialSelf-citationSex differences in the circadian regulation of sleep and waking cognition in humans
Santhi, N., Lázár, A. S., McCabe, P. J., Lo, J. C.-Y., Groeger, J. A., & Dijk, D. (2016) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1521637113 · Cited by 290
“Attentional processing, integration of emotion, response to reward, and performance in spatial tasks are all affected by the menstrual phase (57).”
Lonsdorf, T. B., & Merz, C. J. (2017) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.07.007 · Cited by 253
“In addition to the biological sex, different levels of sex (or gonadal) hormones occur over the course of the menstrual cycle in females, which has been shown to exert a pronounced impact on cognitive and affective processing (Sundström Poromaa and Gingnell, 2014; Toffoletto et al., 2014).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Sundström Poromaa, I., & Gingnell, M.
- Affiliations
- Uppsala University (SE)
- ORCID
- Gingnell, Malin
- Venue
- Frontiers in Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2014-11-24
- Volume
- 8
- Pages
- 380-380
- ISSN
- 1662-453X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4241821
- OpenAlex
- W2019634736
- Cited by
- 291
- References
- 132
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 3.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Menstrual Health and Disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Endocrinology › Estrogen and related hormone effects
- Keywords
- menstrual cycle, cognitive function, emotional processing, ovarian steroids, estradiol, progesterone, sexual dimorphism, mental rotation, working memory, prefrontal cortex, luteal phase, premenstrual disorders, amygdala reactivity, emotional memory, fear extinction, emotion recognition
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