Emotion recognition and mood along the menstrual cycle

Horm Behav. 2023 Jul 19;154:105406. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2023.105406. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTPrevious studies have demonstrated menstrual cycle dependent changes in the recognition of facial emotional expressions, specifically the expression of fear, anger, sadness or disgust. While some studies demonstrate an improvement of emotion recognition performance during the peri-ovulatory phase, when estradiol levels peak, other studies demonstrate a deterioration of emotion recognition performance during the mid-luteal phase, when progesterone levels peak. It has been hypothesized, that these changes in emotion recognition performance mirror mood changes along the menstrual cycle. In the present study, we investigate, whether changes in emotion recognition performance along the menstrual cycle are mediated by mood changes along the menstrual cycle. In a combined cross-sectional and longitudinal study design, two large samples of women completed an emotion recognition task, as well as several mood questionnaires during their menses, peri-ovulatory or mid-luteal cycle phase. 65 women completed the task thrice, once during each cycle phase, order counterbalanced. In order to control for potential learning effects, a sample of 153 women completed the task only once in one of the three cycle phases. In both samples, results demonstrated no significant changes in emotion recognition performance along the menstrual cycle, irrespective of the performance measure investigated (accura...
Source: Hormones and Behavior - Category: Endocrinology Authors: Source Type: research