Menstruation doesn't change how your brain works

  • A largish study for its type indicates that hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle have no impact on working memory, multitasking ability, or cognitive bias.

A study involving 88 women, some of whom had endocrinological disorders, has found that, while some hormones were associated with changes across one menstrual cycle in some of the women taking part, these effects didn't repeat in the following cycle. In other words, there was no consistent effect of hormonal changes on cognition. This is not to say that some individuals might not be consistently affected, just that it doesn’t appear to be a general rule.

While the number of participants isn’t huge, it is considerably larger than is common in these sort of studies. The replication across two cycles is particularly important, since if the researchers had settled for just looking at one cycle, they would have concluded that there was an effect on cognition — as several studies have previously concluded. This more rigorous study suggests that earlier findings should be regarded with caution.

The study followed the women through two menstrual cycles. For the first cycle, 88 women participated; 68 women were re-assessed for a second cycle, to rule out practice effects and false-positive chance findings. Visuospatial working memory, attention, cognitive bias and hormone levels were assessed at four consecutive time-points across both cycles.

Of the initial 88, 58 had no endocrinological problems, 13 were diagnosed with endometriosis, 16 with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and one woman with hyperprolactinemia. Additionally, 12 women presented with obesity. Women were excluded if they were using oral contraceptives, had been pregnant or breastfeeding within the past 6 months, were using medication or had surgery which might interfere with endocrine parameters, had severe psychiatric or general diseases, worked irregular shifts, had menstrual or ovulation disorders except those investigated in the study, or showed any additional abnormality in hormonal parameters. Mean age was 30. Data from the subset of healthy women were also analyzed separately, confirming no difference in the findings. I would have liked the researchers to mention how the 68 women in the replication were selected, but I assume, after all their emphasis on methodological rigor, that they would have been careful to make sure there was no bias in that selection.

It should be noted, however, that the cognitive testing wasn’t exhaustive by any means — it’s possible that other cognitive aspects might be affected by hormonal changes. However, attention and working memory are the areas generally accused, and most likely to be noticed by an individual.

Of course, that’s the thing about attention and working memory — they’re very sensitive to a host of factors, including sleep quality and stress. So, we often notice that we’re not working at top gear, and we’re likely to look around for reasons. If we’re women, and it’s our period or just before it, we’re quite likely to attribute the reason to that. And it may be true in an indirect way — if we have pain, or sleeplessness, or are stressed, for example. What this study tells us, is that the changes in hormonal levels don't seem to consistently affect cognition.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-07/f-mdc062717.php

Reference: 

Related News

Grasp of fractions and long division predicts later math success

While the ‘Alzheimer’s gene’ is relatively common — the ApoE4 mutation is present in around 15% of the population — having two copies of the mutation is, thankfully, much rarer, at around 2%.

A British study looking at possible gender differences in the effects of math anxiety involved 433 secondary school children (11-16 years old) completing customized (year appropriate) mental mathematics tests as well as questionnaires designed to assess math anxiety and (separately) test anxiety

Data from the very large and long-running Cognitive Function and Ageing Study, a U.K. study involving 13,004 older adults (65+), from which 329 brains are now available for analysis, has found that cognitive lifestyle score (CLS) had no effect on Alzheimer’s pathology.

A study involving 75 perimenopausal women aged 40 to 60 has found that those with memory complaints tended to show impairments in

I talked recently about how the well-established difference in spatial ability between men and women apparently has a lot to do with confidence. I also mentioned in passing that previous research has shown that training can close the gender gap.

This is another demonstration of stereotype threat, which is also a nice demonstration of the contextual nature of intelligence. The study involved 70 volunteers (average age 25; range 18-49), who were put in groups of 5.

One of the few established cognitive differences between men and women lies in spatial ability. But in recent years, this ‘fact’ has been shaken by evidence that training can close the gap between the genders.

Is there, or is there not, a gender gap in mathematics performance? And if there is, is it biological or cultural?

I had to report on this quirky little study, because a few years ago I discovered Leonard Cohen’s gravelly voice and then just a few weeks ago had it trumped by Tom Waits — I adore these deep gravelly voices, but couldn’t say why.

Pages

Subscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest newsSubscribe to Latest health newsSubscribe to Latest news
Error | About memory

Error

The website encountered an unexpected error. Please try again later.