Study, 1989
Does the menstrual cycle change how the two sides of the brain handle visual tasks?
This small, preliminary study found some signs that brain response patterns for certain visual tasks shift across the cycle, but the pattern was mixed, so it is not a firm conclusion.
What they did
Women completed two visual tasks, one involving telling real words from made-up letter strings and one involving judging line angles, during the follicular, luteal, and menstrual phases of their cycle. A group of men completed the same tasks for comparison.
What they found
The right-side visual advantage for telling words from non-words stayed the same across all three cycle phases, but the left side of the brain showed a shift in its response pattern for this task depending on the cycle phase. Men and women differed on the line angle task, and women's performance on that task changed across the cycle.
What it means for you
The results suggest hormone changes across the cycle may affect how the brain handles some visual and spatial tasks, which could help explain general differences between men and women in these skills. This was described as a preliminary study, so larger research would be needed to confirm the pattern.
About the study
- Original title
- Visual cerebral lateralization over phases of the menstrual cycle: a preliminary investigation
- Authors
- Chiarello C, McMahon MA, Schaefer K
- Journal
- Brain and cognition
- Year
- 1989
- Study design
- Study
- What was tested
- No treatment was tested. This was an observational comparison of visual task performance across cycle phases
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/0278-2626(89)90002-x
Topics
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