TY - JOUR

T1 - Neuropsychological variables across the menstrual cycle in eumenorrheic healthy women: Systematic review

AU - Bazanova, O.M.

PY - 2023/6

Y1 - 2023/6

N2 - Introduction: It is well-established that over the course of a menstrual cycle, women are exposed to a constant and rapidly shifting profile of endogenous sex hormones. Aside from their principal roles in reproductive function and control of sexual characteristics, the main female ovarian hormones (oestrogen and progesterone) circulating in the blood, influence a multitude of different physiological systems and psychological functions. However, many questions remain regarding the specific differences in neuropsychological performance across space time between the five phases in the menstrual cycle.Objectives: To review the current body of research that has investigated changes in psychophysiological variables during different phases of the menstrual cycle in normal cycling women.Method: A literature search was conducted in Pubmed and Web of Science using search terms related to the menstrual cycle and EEG, MEG, fMRI and biomechanical measures of cognitive, psychomotor and affective functions. Studies should meet follow criteria for inclusion: participants -healthy eumenorrheic women, within-subject design including no less 3 different hormone- checked phases. Methodological rigor was assessed using the Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies.Results: Among the 4569 psychophysiological studies of menstrual cycle in period of 1954-2022 years only 82 were devoted to eumenorrheic women. The assessment of these study quality showed that a high level of bias exists in specific areas of study design. We’ll present the review of 8 studies met the criteria for inclusion. Finding of these studies demonstrated significant main effect of progesterone related phase on the cognitive, psychomotor and affective functions, and brain activity measured by EEG, fMRI, and MEG. Non-significant and small or trivial effect sizes in some EEG studies are explained by methodological heterogeneity in the phase detection, non -individualized EEG frequency bands spectral analysis, and not taking in account the scalp EMG contamination of EEG. Meanwhile, since the Creutzfeld et al. study (1978) it was shown that the individual alpha peak frequency associates with progesterone level and dramatically changes across menstrual cycle. Moreover, frontal EMG reflecting the emotional state changes according changing estradiol and progesterone.Conclusions: psychophysiological status appears to be altered by the fluctuations in ovarian sex hormones that occur during the menstrual cycle. This finding should be interpreted with caution due to the methodological shortcomings identified by the quality assessment.

AB - Introduction: It is well-established that over the course of a menstrual cycle, women are exposed to a constant and rapidly shifting profile of endogenous sex hormones. Aside from their principal roles in reproductive function and control of sexual characteristics, the main female ovarian hormones (oestrogen and progesterone) circulating in the blood, influence a multitude of different physiological systems and psychological functions. However, many questions remain regarding the specific differences in neuropsychological performance across space time between the five phases in the menstrual cycle.Objectives: To review the current body of research that has investigated changes in psychophysiological variables during different phases of the menstrual cycle in normal cycling women.Method: A literature search was conducted in Pubmed and Web of Science using search terms related to the menstrual cycle and EEG, MEG, fMRI and biomechanical measures of cognitive, psychomotor and affective functions. Studies should meet follow criteria for inclusion: participants -healthy eumenorrheic women, within-subject design including no less 3 different hormone- checked phases. Methodological rigor was assessed using the Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies.Results: Among the 4569 psychophysiological studies of menstrual cycle in period of 1954-2022 years only 82 were devoted to eumenorrheic women. The assessment of these study quality showed that a high level of bias exists in specific areas of study design. We’ll present the review of 8 studies met the criteria for inclusion. Finding of these studies demonstrated significant main effect of progesterone related phase on the cognitive, psychomotor and affective functions, and brain activity measured by EEG, fMRI, and MEG. Non-significant and small or trivial effect sizes in some EEG studies are explained by methodological heterogeneity in the phase detection, non -individualized EEG frequency bands spectral analysis, and not taking in account the scalp EMG contamination of EEG. Meanwhile, since the Creutzfeld et al. study (1978) it was shown that the individual alpha peak frequency associates with progesterone level and dramatically changes across menstrual cycle. Moreover, frontal EMG reflecting the emotional state changes according changing estradiol and progesterone.Conclusions: psychophysiological status appears to be altered by the fluctuations in ovarian sex hormones that occur during the menstrual cycle. This finding should be interpreted with caution due to the methodological shortcomings identified by the quality assessment.

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/f232477d-52bf-3257-aba8-4ce836fa7bdc/

U2 - 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2023.05.014

DO - 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2023.05.014

M3 - Article

VL - 188

SP - 7

JO - International Journal of Psychophysiology

JF - International Journal of Psychophysiology

SN - 0167-8760

IS - Supplement

ER -