Lab study, 2008
How does the brain respond to emotions differently in women with PMDD?
Women with PMDD show different brain activity during the premenstrual phase: they react more strongly to negative emotions and less to positive ones, and brain regions that normally control emotions don't work as well.
What they did
Used brain imaging to study how women with PMDD and healthy women responded to emotional words during the premenstrual and postmenstrual phases, while they performed a control task.
What they found
In the premenstrual phase compared to postmenstrual phase, women with PMDD showed increased amygdala response to negative words, decreased striatum response to positive words, and abnormal orbitofrontal cortex activity. Healthy women showed normal patterns.
What it means for you
Women with PMDD may process emotions through different brain pathways, particularly showing excessive response to negative stimuli and reduced response to positive stimuli during the luteal phase, with weaker emotional control. Main limit: sample size not stated.
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Menstrual cycle phases compared
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Brain regions studied (amygdala, striatum, OFC)
About the study
- Original title
- Toward a functional neuroanatomy of premenstrual dysphoric disorder
- Authors
- Protopopescu X, Tuescher O, Pan H et al.
- Journal
- Journal of affective disorders
- Year
- 2008
- Study design
- Lab study
- What was tested
- No intervention - observational comparison across menstrual cycle phases
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2007.09.015
Topics
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