--- title: Does estrogen affect how well women recognize emotions in others? description: Women with higher overall estrogen levels were better at recognizing emotions. However, when a woman's estrogen was unusually high for her at a given time, it url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/estrogen-predicts-multimodal-emotion-recognition-accuracy-across-the-menstrual-2024/ --- - [Niyora](https://niyora.com/) - [Research](https://niyora.com/research/) - [Library](https://niyora.com/research/library/) - Does estrogen affect how well women recognize emotions in others? Survey study, 2024 # Does estrogen affect how well women recognize emotions in others? Women with higher overall estrogen levels were better at recognizing emotions. However, when a woman's estrogen was unusually high for her at a given time, it made emotion recognition worse. Moderate study design 63 healthy women with naturally cycling menstrual cycles ## What they did Researchers studied 63 naturally cycling women at different times of their menstrual cycle. Women watched videos of people expressing emotions and described what they saw. Researchers measured women's estrogen and progesterone levels. ## What they found There was no clear difference in emotion recognition between the follicular phase (first part of cycle) and luteal phase (second part). Women with naturally higher overall estrogen levels were more accurate at recognizing emotions. But when estrogen was higher than usual for that individual at that time, accuracy was lower. Women with higher estrogen were more accurate in the follicular phase and middle of the menstrual cycle. ## What it means for you The relationship between estrogen and emotion recognition is complex. A woman's baseline estrogen levels matter differently than her changes from one time to another. This complexity might explain why past studies gave different results. The study was small and included only healthy women with regular cycles. 63 Healthy women studied ## About the study Original title Estrogen predicts multimodal emotion recognition accuracy across the menstrual cycle Authors Jang D, Lybeck M, Cortes DS et al. Journal PloS one Year 2024 Study design Survey study Participants 63 Open access Yes Read the paper [doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0312404](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0312404) Original abstract Researchers have proposed that variation in sex hormones across the menstrual cycle modulate the ability to recognize emotions in others. Existing research suggests that accuracy is higher during the follicular phase and ovulation compared to the luteal phase, but findings are inconsistent. Using a repeated measures design with a sample of healthy naturally cycling women (N = 63), we investigated whether emotion recognition accuracy varied between the follicular and luteal phases, and whether accuracy related to levels of estrogen (estradiol) and progesterone. Two tasks assessed recognition of a range of positive and negative emotions via brief video recordings presented in visual, auditory, and multimodal blocks, and non-linguistic vocalizations (e.g., laughter, sobs, and sighs). Multilevel models did not show differences in emotion recognition between cycle phases. However, coefficients for estrogen were significant for both emotion recognition tasks. Higher within-person levels of estrogen predicted lower accuracy, whereas higher between-person estrogen levels predicted greater accuracy. This suggests that in general having higher estrogen levels increases accuracy, but that higher-than-usual estrogen at a given time decreases it. Within-person estrogen further interacted with cycle phase for both tasks and showed a quadratic relationship with accuracy for the multimodal task. In particular, women with higher levels of estrogen were more accurate in the follicular phase and middle of the menstrual cycle. We propose that the differing role of within- and between-person hormone levels could explain some of the inconsistency in previous findings. Reproduced under CC-BY. ## Topics [Menstrual cycle and mood](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-cycle-mood/)[Cognition, concentration and memory](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-cognition/) Research tells you what helps on average. Niyora helps on the day it hits. Calm down, see it another way, and decide what to say, with a PMS and PMDD app built by a doctor. ## Related studies Systematic review, 2026 Do brain wave patterns change across the menstrual cycle? Systematic review, 2026 Can digital tools help diagnose PMDD? 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