Monthly cycle changes women’s brains

Activity in a brain region that regulates emotions fluctuates over the course of a woman’s menstrual cycle, according to a new brain-imaging study.

Up to half of all women experience a variety of emotional symptoms, such as mood swings, irritability, and depression, during the days leading up to their periods. Combined with physical complaints, including bloating and cramping, these symptoms are collectively called premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

Although the emotional symptoms of PMS are well documented, says David Silbersweig of Cornell University, researchers know little about how the menstrual cycle affects women’s brains.

To investigate, Silbersweig and his colleagues recruited 12 healthy women between the ages of 22 and 35. The researchers specifically selected women who reported having none of the emotional symptoms of PMS.

One to 5 days before their periods, the women were asked to read words with connotations that were positive (such as “safe” or “delighted”), negative (such as “fault” or “death”), or neutral (such as “bookcase” or “clarinet”). They repeated the task 8 to 12 days after their periods started. During all these word-reading sessions, the researchers scanned the women’s brains to measure activity.

During the premenstrual period, part of the volunteers’ orbitofrontal cortex, an area involved in regulating emotion, was more active in response to negative words than to positive or neutral words. This difference decreased after the women’s periods. The researchers report these results in the Nov. 1 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Although the reason for this increased premenstrual brain activity isn’t clear, Silbersweig suggests that it may be keeping the volunteers’ emotions in check. In a future study, the researchers plan to compare these results with those obtained from women experiencing severe emotional PMS symptoms.

Use up and down arrow keys to explore.Use right arrow key to move into the list.Use left arrow key to move back to the parent list.Use tab key to enter the current list item.Use escape to exit the menu.Use the Shift key with the Tab key to tab back to the search input.
Logo

Looks like your ad blocker is on.

×

We rely on ads to keep creating quality content for you to enjoy for free.

Please support our site by disabling your ad blocker.

Continue without supporting us

Choose your Ad Blocker

  • Adblock Plus
  • Adblock
  • Adguard
  • Ad Remover
  • Brave
  • Ghostery
  • uBlock Origin
  • uBlock
  • UltraBlock
  • Other
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock Plus icon
  2. Click the large blue toggle for this website
  3. Click refresh
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock icon
  2. Under "Pause on this site" click "Always"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Adguard icon
  2. Click on the large green toggle for this website
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ad Remover icon
  2. Click "Disable on This Website"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the orange lion icon
  2. Click the toggle on the top right, shifting from "Up" to "Down"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ghostery icon
  2. Click the "Anti-Tracking" shield so it says "Off"
  3. Click the "Ad-Blocking" stop sign so it says "Off"
  4. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock Origin icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the UltraBlock icon
  2. Check the "Disable UltraBlock" checkbox
  3. Marque la casilla de verificación "Desactivar UltraBlock"
  1. Please disable your Ad Blocker
  2. Disable any DNS blocking tools such as AdGuardDNS or NextDNS

If the prompt is still appearing, please disable any tools or services you are using that block internet ads (e.g. DNS Servers).