---
title: Do women with high PMS symptoms pay attention differently to emotional images?
description: Women with high PMS symptoms showed different attention patterns. They looked more at negative images initially and had trouble looking away from them, while
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/eye-movement-pattern-of-attention-bias-to-emotional-stimuli-in-women-with-high-2022/
---

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- Do women with high PMS symptoms pay attention differently to emotional images?

Survey study, 2022

# Do women with high PMS symptoms pay attention differently to emotional images?

Women with high PMS symptoms showed different attention patterns. They looked more at negative images initially and had trouble looking away from them, while women with low PMS symptoms did not show these patterns.

 Early or limited evidence

82 women (38 with high PMS, 44 with low PMS)

## What they did

Researchers compared 38 women with high PMS symptoms to 44 women with low PMS symptoms. All participants answered questionnaires about repetitive thinking patterns and completed an eye-tracking task where they viewed emotional images while a camera tracked their eye movements.

## What they found

Women with high PMS had higher scores for repetitive negative thinking. When viewing images, women with high PMS looked at negative emotional images more quickly and had difficulty looking away from them. They also looked away from positive images faster than women with low PMS.

## What it means for you

Women with high PMS symptoms may process emotional information differently, paying more attention to negative things and having trouble shifting attention away from them. This may be linked to repetitive negative thinking. The study was small and used specialized eye-tracking measurements, so results need confirmation in larger studies.

38

women with high PMS

44

women with low PMS

## About the study

Original title Eye movement pattern of attention bias to emotional stimuli in women with high premenstrual symptoms Authors Chen L, Hou L, Zhou R Journal Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry Year 2022 Study design Survey study Participants 38 Read the paper [doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2021.101689](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2021.101689)

## Topics

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

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