---
title: Does how your brain works on spatial tasks change during your menstrual cycle?
description: Yes. Brain activity during a shape-matching task shifted across menstrual cycle phases, showing changes in how the brain's two sides coordinate during this ta
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/dynamic-changes-in-functional-cerebral-connectivity-of-spatial-cognition-during-2011/
---

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- Does how your brain works on spatial tasks change during your menstrual cycle?

Study, 2011

# Does how your brain works on spatial tasks change during your menstrual cycle?

Yes. Brain activity during a shape-matching task shifted across menstrual cycle phases, showing changes in how the brain's two sides coordinate during this task.

 Early or limited evidence

Women at different menstrual cycle phases (sample size not stated)

## What they did

Women had brain scans three times during their cycle (menstrual, follicular, and luteal phases) while doing a figure comparison task.

## What they found

The right hemisphere advantage for the figure comparison task changed across cycle phases. Brain scans showed changes in brain activation and changes in connectivity between brain regions at different cycle phases.

## What it means for you

Hormones during your cycle affect how your brain organizes spatial reasoning. The study does not state the sample size, which limits how much we can generalize the findings.

3

menstrual cycle phases examined

## About the study

Original title Dynamic changes in functional cerebral connectivity of spatial cognition during the menstrual cycle Authors Weis S, Hausmann M, Stoffers B et al. Journal Human brain mapping Year 2011 Study design Study What was tested None Open access Yes Read the paper [doi.org/10.1002/hbm.21126](https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.21126)

## Topics

[Cognition, concentration and memory](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-cognition/)

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