--- title: Does the ability to think clearly change with the menstrual cycle? description: Yes. When women were tested in their premenstrual phase versus their preovulatory phase, they showed more difficulty suppressing irrelevant information and fo url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/random-number-generation-and-the-menstrual-cycle-preliminary-evidence-for-a-1993/ --- - [Niyora](https://niyora.com/) - [Research](https://niyora.com/research/) - [Library](https://niyora.com/research/library/) - Does the ability to think clearly change with the menstrual cycle? Study, 1993 # Does the ability to think clearly change with the menstrual cycle? Yes. When women were tested in their premenstrual phase versus their preovulatory phase, they showed more difficulty suppressing irrelevant information and following instructions. The difficulty was more pronounced in women who reported worse premenstrual symptoms. Early or limited evidence 20 women, average age 30.4 years ## What they did 20 women with an average age of 30.4 years completed a thinking task twice: once during preovulatory phase and once during premenstrual phase. The Mental Dice Task asked them to generate random numbers from 1 to 6. They rated their premenstrual symptom severity. ## What they found All the women showed fewer repetitions and more counting patterns in their random number sequences compared to real dice rolls, at both testing times. During the premenstrual test, this counting bias was stronger. Women who reported worse premenstrual symptoms showed a bigger increase in this bias. The researchers thought this indicated reduced ability to ignore task-unrelated thoughts and weaker frontal lobe function. ## What it means for you Thinking and decision-making ability may change through the menstrual cycle, particularly the ability to suppress distraction and follow instructions. This happened with self-reported cognitive symptoms, suggesting thinking changes are real. The study was small and tested only one task, so findings may not apply to other kinds of thinking. 20 women 30.4 average age (years) 2 test sessions ## About the study Original title Random-number generation and the menstrual cycle: preliminary evidence for a premenstrual alteration of frontal lobe functioning Authors Brugger P, Milicevic A, Regard M et al. Journal Perceptual and motor skills Year 1993 Study design Study Participants 20 What was tested Testing on Mental Dice Task during preovulatory and premenstrual phases Read the paper [doi.org/10.2466/pms.1993.77.3.915](https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1993.77.3.915) ## Topics [Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Menstrual cycle and mood](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-cycle-mood/)[Cognition, concentration and memory](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-cognition/) Research tells you what helps on average. Niyora helps on the day it hits. Calm down, see it another way, and decide what to say, with a PMS and PMDD app built by a doctor. ## Related studies Cohort study, 2023 Are PMS symptoms linked to genetic factors for psychiatric disorders? Survey study, 2020 What symptoms best predict whether PMDD will seriously affect daily life? Review, 2015 What do we know about PMS and PMDD and how are they treated? Review, 2013 What treatments work best for PMDD? Randomised trial, 1998 Does cognitive therapy help women with PMS? Survey study, 2026 How does PMS affect test anxiety in nursing students? Ask AI about this page Copy prompt ChatGPT ↗ Claude ↗ Perplexity ↗ Google AI Mode ↗ Grok ↗