A Specific Association between Facial Disgust Recognition and Estradiol Levels in Naturally Cycling Women

Abstract

Subtle changes in social cognition are associated with naturalistic fluctuations in estrogens and progesterone over the course of the menstrual cycle. Using a dynamic emotion recognition task we aimed to provide a comprehensive description of the association between ovarian hormone levels and emotion recognition performance using a variety of performance metrics. Naturally cycling, psychiatrically healthy women attended a single experimental session during a follicular (days 7–13; n = 16), early luteal (days 15–19; n = 14) or late luteal phase (days 22–27; n = 14) of their menstrual cycle. Correct responses and reaction times to dynamic facial expressions were recorded and a two-high threshold analysis was used to assess discrimination and response bias. Salivary progesterone and estradiol were assayed and subjective measures of premenstrual symptoms, anxiety and positive and negative affect assessed. There was no interaction between cycle phase (follicular, early luteal, late luteal) and facial expression (sad, happy, fearful, angry, neutral and disgusted) on any of the recognition performance metrics. However, across the sample as a whole, progesterone levels were positively correlated with reaction times to a variety of facial expressions (anger, happiness, sadness and neutral expressions). In contrast, estradiol levels were specifically correlated with disgust processing on three performance indices (correct responses, response bias and discrimination). Premenstrual symptoms, anxiety and positive and negative affect were not associated with emotion recognition indices or hormone levels. The study highlights the role of naturalistic variations in ovarian hormone levels in modulating emotion recognition. In particular, progesterone seems to have a general slowing effect on facial expression processing. Our findings also provide the first behavioural evidence of a specific role for estrogens in the processing of disgust in humans.

Sex Hormones and Processing of Facial Expressions of Emotion: A Systematic Literature Review

“…In the natural menstrual cycle, increased levels of estrogen/estradiol typical of the follicular phase favored the recognition of facial expressions of emotion. This finding lends support to the view that ovarian hormones trigger evolutionary adaptations that are relevant for emotional competence, with the possible purpose of increasing mating chances (Derntl et al, 2008a ; Kamboj et al, 2015 ).…”

“…However, specific analyses about the association between hormone levels (independently of menstrual cycle phase) and accuracy of emotional judgment showed that higher estrogen/estradiol levels were linked to improved recognition of fear (Pearson and Lewis, 2005 ) and decreased accuracy in the recognition of anger (Guapo et al, 2009 ; Kamboj et al, 2015 ) and disgust (Kamboj et al, 2015 ). In respect to progesterone, the associations found were less evident, but increased progesterone levels have been associated with global impairment in FEP consisting of increased response time, increased response biases, negative biases, and decreased accuracy of emotional judgment (Conway et al, 2007 ; Derntl et al, 2008a ; Kamboj et al, 2015 ).…”

“…Concerning response time, only one study (Kamboj et al, 2015 ) described an association between higher progesterone levels and increased response time for the recognition of anger, happiness, sadness, and neutral faces.…”

Reduction in the occurrence of distressing involuntary memories following propranolol or hydrocortisone in healthy women

“…However, it should be noted that use of hormone-based contraceptive pill is common in the United States and many European countries, with approximately a quarter of women using them (Enewold et al, 2010). The alternative approach of testing non-contraceptive using, regularly cycling women at a specific phase in their menstrual cycle (Kamboj, Krol, & Curran, 2015;Soni, Curran, & Kamboj, 2013) is cumbersome, and does not improve generalisability. Furthermore, studies limited to men are also problematic, especially given that there is a >2-fold higher lifetime prevalence of PTSD among women (Kessler, Sonnega, Bromet, Hughes, & Nelson, 1995).…”

Estradiol treatment in a nonhuman primate model of menopause preserves affective reactivity

“…Estrogen levels appear to influence the perception of some facial displays of emotion (Guapo et al, 2009;Kamboj, Krol, & Curran, 2015). Estrogen levels impact mood (for a review Newhouse & Albert, 2015).…”