Sex hormones affect spatial abilities during the menstrual cycle.

The aim of this study was (a) to show that different measures of spatial cognition are modulated by the menstrual cycle and (b) to analyze which steroid is responsible for these cognitive alterations. The authors collected blood samples in 3-day intervals over 6 weeks from 12 young women with a regular menstrual cycle to analyze concentrations of estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, luteinizing hormone, and follicle-stimulating hormone. The performance on 3 spatial tests was measured during the menstrual and the midluteal phases. A significant cycle difference in spatial ability as tested by the Mental Rotation Test was found, with high scores during the menstrual phase and low scores during the midluteal phase. Testosterone had a strong and positive influence on mental rotation performance, whereas estradiol had a negative one. These results clearly indicate that testosterone and estradiol are able to modulate spatial cognition during the menstrual cycle.

[1]  O. Güntürkün,et al.  Steroid fluctuations modify functional cerebral asymmetries: the hypothesis of progesterone-mediated interhemispheric decoupling , 2000, Neuropsychologia.

[2]  S. H. Goozen,et al.  Activating effects of cross-sex hormones on cognitive functioning: a study of short-term and long-term hormone effects in transsexuals , 1999, Psychoneuroendocrinology.

[3]  W. Overman,et al.  Sex-sensitive tasks in men and women: a search for performance fluctuations across the menstrual cycle. , 1998, Behavioral neuroscience.

[4]  Melissa Dugger,et al.  Eliminating Gender Differences Through Practice in an Applied Visual Spatial Task , 1998 .

[5]  I. Silverman,et al.  Differences in the Relationship of Menstrual Cycle Phase to Spatial Performance on Two- and Three-Dimensional Tasks , 1997, Hormones and Behavior.

[6]  D. Collins,et al.  A large sex difference on a two-dimensional mental rotation task. , 1997, Behavioral neuroscience.

[7]  D. Halpern.  Sex, Brains, Hands, and Spatial Cognition☆ , 1996 .

[8]  Irwin Silverman,et al.  Homogeneity of Effect Sizes for Sex across Spatial Tests and Cultures: Implications for Hormonal Theories , 1996, Brain and Cognition.

[9]  D. Kimura.  Sex, sexual orientation and sex hormones influence human cognitive function , 1996, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[10]  N. Frijda,et al.  Gender differences in behaviour: Activating effects of cross-sex hormones , 1995, Psychoneuroendocrinology.

[11]  M. Peters,et al.  A Redrawn Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotations Test - Different Versions and Factors That Affect Performance , 1995, Brain and Cognition.

[12]  Susan D. Voyer,et al.  Magnitude of sex differences in spatial abilities: a meta-analysis and consideration of critical variables. , 1995, Psychological bulletin.

[13]  Nico H. Frijda,et al.  Activating effects of androgens on cognitive performance: Causal evidence in a group of female-to-male transsexuals , 1994, Neuropsychologia.

[14]  J. Eliot,et al.  Comparison of Related Perceptual Tests , 1994, Perceptual and motor skills.

[15]  H. W. Gordon,et al.  No difference in cognitive performance between phases of the menstrual cycle , 1993, Psychoneuroendocrinology.

[16]  Irwin Silverman,et al.  Effects of estrogen changes during the menstrual cycle on spatial performance , 1993 .

[17]  M. S. Masters,et al.  Is the gender difference in mental rotation disappearing? , 1993, Behavior genetics.

[18]  D. Kimura.  Sex differences in the brain. , 1992, Scientific American.

[19]  D. Kimura,et al.  The relationship between testosterone levels and cognitive ability patterns , 1991, Psychoneuroendocrinology.

[20]  W. Meck,et al.  The organizational effects of gonadal steroids on sexually dimorphic spatial ability , 1991, Psychoneuroendocrinology.

[21]  Elizabeth Hampson,et al.  Estrogen-related variations in human spatial and articulatory-motor skills , 1990, Psychoneuroendocrinology.

[22]  Elizabeth Hampson,et al.  Variations in sex-related cognitive abilities across the menstrual cycle , 1990, Brain and Cognition.

[23]  D. Kimura,et al.  Reciprocal effects of hormonal fluctuations on human motor and perceptual-spatial skills. , 1988, Behavioral neuroscience.

[24]  H. W. Gordon,et al.  A relationship between gonadotropins and visuospatial function , 1986, Neuropsychologia.

[25]  J. Gilger,et al.  Effects of Menstrual Cycle on Spatial Information-Processes , 1986, Perceptual and motor skills.

[26]  H. W. Gordon,et al.  Changes in Specialized Cognitive Function Following Changes in Hormone Levels , 1986, Cortex.

[27]  M. Linn,et al.  Emergence and characterization of sex differences in spatial ability: a meta-analysis. , 1985, Child development.

[28]  J. Fisher,et al.  Neuropsychological Assessment, 2nd Ed , 1985 .

[29]  J. Hyde.  How large are cognitive gender differences? A meta-analysis using !w² and d.. , 1981 .

[30]  M. Metcalf,et al.  Incidence of ovulation in young women , 1980, Journal of Biosocial Science.

[31]  J. Mcglone,et al.  Sex differences in human brain asymmetry: a critical survey , 1980, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[32]  Suzanne Corkin,et al.  Hidden-figures-test performance: Lasting effects of unilateral penetrating head injury and transient effects of bilateral cingulotomy , 1979, Neuropsychologia.

[33]  M. G. McGee.  Human spatial abilities: psychometric studies and environmental, genetic, hormonal, and neurological influences. , 1979, Psychological bulletin.

[34]  Cathryn M. Lewis,et al.  Psychoneuroendocrinology , 1979, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior.

[35]  S. Vandenberg,et al.  Mental Rotations, a Group Test of Three-Dimensional Spatial Visualization , 1978, Perceptual and motor skills.

[36]  Nina L. Colwill,et al.  The psychology of sex differences , 1978 .

[37]  M. Bryden,et al.  An investigation of sex differences in spatial ability: mental rotation of three-dimensional objects. , 1977, Canadian journal of psychology.

[38]  R. Shepard,et al.  Mental Rotation of Three-Dimensional Objects , 1971, Science.

[39]  E. Hampson,et al.  Asymmetric effects of ovarian hormones on hemispheric activity: Evidence from dichotic and tachistoscopic tests. , 1996 .

[40]  M. Peters,et al.  Spatial Ability, Student Gender, and Academic Performance , 1995 .

[41]  Nora S. Newcombe,et al.  Environmental input to the development of sex-related differences in spatial and mathematical ability , 1995 .

[42]  W. F. McKeever,et al.  Hormone and hemisphericity hypotheses regarding cognitive sex differences: Possible future explanatory power, but current empirical chaos , 1995 .

[43]  J. Janowsky,et al.  Testosterone influences spatial cognition in older men. , 1994, Behavioral neuroscience.

[44]  K. Christiansen.  Sex hormone-related variations of cognitive performance in !Kung San hunter-gatherers of Namibia. , 1993, Neuropsychobiology.

[45]  H. Wollmann,et al.  Testosterone, estradiol, ACTH and musical, spatial and verbal performance. , 1992, The International journal of neuroscience.

[46]  Doreen Kimura,et al.  Nontrivial sex differences in throwing and intercepting: Relation to psychometrically-defined spatial functions , 1991 .

[47]  D. Halpern.  Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities , 1986 .

[48]  Ruth B. Ekstrom,et al.  Manual for kit of factor-referenced cognitive tests , 1976 .