Skip to content

Study, 2015

Do women with more emotional sensitivity show different brain patterns during their menstrual cycle?

Yes. Women who are more emotionally sensitive show different brain patterns than less sensitive women, especially during the second half of the cycle.

Early or limited evidence Healthy women with varying levels of emotional sensitivity

What they did

Researchers measured resting brain activity in healthy women. Some had higher emotional sensitivity than others based on personality measures. They measured during three cycle phases: menstrual, late follicular, and midlate luteal.

What they found

During the midlate luteal phase, women with higher emotional sensitivity showed less activity in the left prefrontal brain region compared to less sensitive women.

What it means for you

Women who are emotionally sensitive may experience different emotional patterns during the second half of their cycle. A limitation is that the paper does not provide sample size information.

3

Menstrual cycle phases measured

About the study

Original title
Variations in resting frontal alpha asymmetry between high- and low-neuroticism females across the menstrual cycle
Authors
Huang Y, Zhou R, Cui H et al.
Journal
Psychophysiology
Year
2015
Study design
Study
What was tested
Resting brain activity measurement

Topics