Study, 2011
Does how your brain works on spatial tasks change during your menstrual cycle?
Yes. Brain activity during a shape-matching task shifted across menstrual cycle phases, showing changes in how the brain's two sides coordinate during this task.
Early or limited evidence Women at different menstrual cycle phases (sample size not stated)
What they did
Women had brain scans three times during their cycle (menstrual, follicular, and luteal phases) while doing a figure comparison task.
What they found
The right hemisphere advantage for the figure comparison task changed across cycle phases. Brain scans showed changes in brain activation and changes in connectivity between brain regions at different cycle phases.
What it means for you
Hormones during your cycle affect how your brain organizes spatial reasoning. The study does not state the sample size, which limits how much we can generalize the findings.
3
menstrual cycle phases examined
About the study
- Original title
- Dynamic changes in functional cerebral connectivity of spatial cognition during the menstrual cycle
- Authors
- Weis S, Hausmann M, Stoffers B et al.
- Journal
- Human brain mapping
- Year
- 2011
- Study design
- Study
- What was tested
- None
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1002/hbm.21126