Estrogen-related variations in human spatial and articulatory-motor skills

Hampson, Elizabeth

doi:10.1016/0306-4530(90)90018-5

Cited by 490 publications

(278 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Our findings on the Grooved Pegboard Test replicate and extend past findings with the Purdue Pegboard test (assembly condition only), the Manual Sequence Box, and the Finger Tapping Test [18,19]. Similarly, our findings on the Mental Rotations Test extend previous findings with the Rod and Frame Test [19] and a measure of spatial ability composed of the Rod and Frame Test, Hidden Figures, and the Space Relations Test [17]. Our comparatively large effect size of about a standard deviation is not surprising given that the Mental Rotations Test produces one of the larger and more reliable sex differences [52].…”

Section: Sexually Dimorphic Abilitiessupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Women in the present study showed enhanced verbal fluency and fine motor skill and decreased mental rotations performance during the luteal phase. Of studies examining verbal fluency across the menstrual cycle [17,18], only this one revealed a significant enhancement during the high estrogen phase. Although Hampson's studies also employed a measure of letter fluency, we employed a measure of rhyme fluency that was particularly sensitive to the effects of estrogen.…”

Section: Sexually Dimorphic Abilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hormonal effects were also evident in an asymmetrical carryover effect, wherein women who first performed spatial tests when hormone levels were low (and therefore conducive to performance) maintained a high level of performance on a second test session when hormone levels were high (and normally detrimental to spatial performance). In a second study, Hampson [17] tested women during both the preovulatory estradiol surge and the follicular phase to control for the potential effects of progesterone on performance. Results paralleled those in the previous study, and hormonal assays revealed a curvilinear relationship between estradiol and spatial ability, with optimal performance associated with intermediate levels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Implicit memory varies across the menstrual cycle: estrogen effects in young women

2002

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Evidence that ovarian steroid hormones such as estrogen and progesterone affect cognition comes from studies of memory in older women receiving estrogen replacement therapy and studies of sexually dimorphic skills in young women across the menstrual cycle. Sixteen women (ages 18-28) completed tests of memory (implicit category exemplar generation, category-cued recall, implicit fragmented object identification) and sexually dimorphic skills (fine motor coordination, verbal fluency, mental rotations) at the early follicular (low estrogen and progesterone) and midluteal (high estrogen and progesterone) phases of the menstrual cycle. Performance on category exemplar generation, a test of conceptual implicit memory, was better at the midluteal than the follicular phase. In contrast, performance on a test of explicit memory, category-cued recall, did not vary across the menstrual cycle. At Session 1, women in the follicular phase performed better on the fragmented object identification task than did those in the midluteal phase. This unexpected finding suggests that high levels of ovarian hormones might inhibit perceptual object priming. Results confirmed previous reports of decreased mental rotations and improved motor skills and fluency in the midluteal phase. Estradiol levels correlated positively with verbal fluency and negatively with mental rotations and perceptual priming, which suggest that estrogen, and not progesterone, was responsible for the observed changes in cognition. Mood did not vary across the cycle phases. Overall, the findings suggest that estrogen may facilitate the automatic activation of verbal representations in memory.

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Section: Sexually Dimorphic Abilitiessupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Sexually Dimorphic Abilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Implicit memory varies across the menstrual cycle: estrogen effects in young women

2002

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“…Support for this view derives from studies in young women, demonstrating specific changes in spatial and verbal abilities across the menstrual cycle (eg Hampson, 1990;Hausmann et al, 2000), as well as from studies in older postmenopausal women, which showed a rather consistent improvement in verbal memory function (immediate and delayed recall of words and stories) during estrogen replacement therapy (eg LeBlanc et al, 2001;Rice et al, 1997;Sherwin, 1999Sherwin, , 2002. A beneficial influence of estrogen on verbal memory was likewise suggested by studies comparing older women with high vs low basal levels of these hormones (Drake et al, 2000;Wolf and Kirschbaum, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute Influences of Estrogen and Testosterone on Divergent and Convergent Thinking in Postmenopausal Women

Krug

Mölle

Dodt

et al. 2003

Neuropsychopharmacol

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Previous studies indicated an enhanced capability of divergent creative thinking in young women during the ovulatory phase, which expressed itself also by an increased dimensional complexity of ongoing electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. Considering the enhanced plasma levels of estrogen and testosterone characterizing the ovulatory phase, we tested whether short-term administration of estrogen or testosterone in postmenopausal women with constantly low levels of gonadal steroids induces similar changes in divergent thinking. In two placebo-controlled cross-over studies, healthy postmenopausal women (n ¼ 12, in each study, mean age 58 years, range 47-65 years) were treated transdermally over 3 days with estrogen and testosterone, respectively, at doses inducing plasma hormone concentrations comparable with those observed in young women around ovulation. Capabilities of divergent thought and convergent analytical thought, performance on motor perseveration, and verbal memory were examined. EEG activity was recorded while subjects performed on tasks of thinking and during mental relaxation. Estrogen impaired divergent thinking (po0.01) and enhanced convergent thinking, motor perseveration, and memory for the initial word list (po0.05 for all tests). In parallel, EEG dimensional complexity was reduced (po0.05). Overall, these changes indicate an estrogen-induced shift from a 'divergent' towards a more 'convergent' mode of processing. However, overall less consistent, effects of testosterone were opposite to those of estrogen. It increased performance on some of the divergent thinking tasks (po0.05), and tended to increase EEG dimensional complexity during divergent thinking. Data indicate a differential sensitivity of modes of thinking to short-term treatment with estrogen and testosterone in postmenopausal women.

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“…The paradigm involves the presentation of two auditory stimuli, usually monosyllabic words (e.g. Alexander et al, 2002;Hampson, 1990aHampson, , 1990b or consonant-vowel syllables (e.g. Cowell et al, 2011;Sanders & Wenmoth, 1998;Wadnerkar et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estradiol-related variations in top-down and bottom-up processes of cerebral lateralization.

2017

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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. (2015) suggested that the effect was due to estradiol-related variations in bottom-up aspects of lateralisation. Method:The present study used two well-established left-and right-lateralised dichotic listening tasks (Hugdahl, 1995(Hugdahl, , 2003Grimshaw et al., 2003;, with forced-attention conditions to differentiate between these two ideas. Fifty-two naturally cycling women underwent both tasks, during either the menstrual, follicular or luteal cycle phase. Saliva estradiol and progesterone levels were determined by luminescence immunoassays. Results:The results showed that sex hormones did not affect language lateralisation, which may be due to the larger degree of lateralisation yielded by the task, compared to that shown by Hodgetts et al. (2015). In the emotional prosody task, high levels of estradiol were marginally associated with a reduction in cognitive control; while the language task yielded no cycle effects for either top-down or bottom-up processes. Conclusions:In sum, the current study revealed weak support for the idea that estradiol affects top-down control of lateralisation, as measured with dichotic listening tasks. Given that the task employed in the present study seemed less cognitively demanding than that used previously, it is suggested that estradiol-related inter-and intra-individual variations in lateralisation are small when task demands are low.

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Estrogen-related variations in human spatial and articulatory-motor skills

Cited by 490 publications

References 43 publications

Implicit memory varies across the menstrual cycle: estrogen effects in young women

Implicit memory varies across the menstrual cycle: estrogen effects in young women

Acute Influences of Estrogen and Testosterone on Divergent and Convergent Thinking in Postmenopausal Women

Estradiol-related variations in top-down and bottom-up processes of cerebral lateralization.

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