Survey study, 2024
Does the menstrual cycle affect how your brain responds to rewards and errors?
The menstrual cycle causes small changes in how the brain responds to rewards and errors. These brain changes vary a lot between people, and for some people they match changes in mood across their cycle.
What they did
Cross-sectional study of 71 naturally menstruating people. Participants had their brain electrical activity measured while doing tasks and answered questions about their mood at three different menstrual cycle phases: early follicular, around ovulation, and mid-luteal.
What they found
No significant mood changes across the menstrual cycle. Small changes were found in brain electrical responses related to reward processing and error detection between cycle phases. Individual differences were large: some people showed much bigger changes in brain responses across their cycle than others. For some participants, changes in brain responses matched their reported mood changes across the cycle.
What it means for you
The menstrual cycle affects how the brain processes information, but the changes are small and differ greatly between people. Brain changes related to emotions match the emotional changes people experience. Study observed natural cycles without testing any intervention. Sample size limits how much we can conclude about all women.
71
Naturally cycling participants
3
Menstrual cycle phases studied
About the study
- Original title
- Characterizing within-person variance in, and menstrual cycle associations with, event-related potentials associated with positive and negative valence systems: The reward positivity and the error-related negativity
- Authors
- Mulligan EM, Eisenlohr-Moul TA, Nagpal A et al.
- Journal
- Psychoneuroendocrinology
- Year
- 2024
- Study design
- Survey study
- What was tested
- None - observational study of natural cycles
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2024.107183
Topics
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