Facial emotion recognition and amygdala activation are associated with menstrual cycle phase

Derntl, Birgit; Windischberger, Christian; Robinson, Simon; Lamplmayr, Elisabeth; Kryspin-Exner, Ilse; Gur, Ruben C.; Moser, Ewald; Habel, Ute

doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2008.04.014

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Volume 33, Issue 8 , Pages 1031-1040, September 2008

Facial emotion recognition and amygdala activation are associated with menstrual cycle phase

Birgit Derntl
- MR Centre of Excellence, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Institute for Clinical, Biological and Differential Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany
- Corresponding author at: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany. Tel.: +49 241 8080279; fax: +49 241 8082401.
Christian Windischberger
- MR Centre of Excellence, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Centre for Biomedical Engineering and Physics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Simon Robinson
- MR Centre of Excellence, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Center of Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Mattarello, Italy
Elisabeth Lamplmayr
- Institute for Clinical, Biological and Differential Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Ilse Kryspin-Exner
- Institute for Clinical, Biological and Differential Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Ruben C. Gur
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Medical School, Philadelphia, USA
Ewald Moser
- MR Centre of Excellence, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Centre for Biomedical Engineering and Physics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Medical School, Philadelphia, USA
Ute Habel
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany

Received 8 February 2008; received in revised form 7 April 2008; accepted 8 April 2008.

Summary

Converging evidence has accumulated that menstrual cycle and thus hormonal levels can affect emotional behavior, in particular facial emotion recognition. Here we explored the association of ovarian hormone levels and amygdala activation during an explicit emotion recognition task in two groups of healthy young females: one group was measured while in their follicular phase (n=11) and the other during their luteal phase (n=11). Using a 3T scanner in combination with a protocol specifically optimized to reliably detect amygdala activation we found significantly stronger amygdala activation in females during their follicular phase. Also, emotion recognition performance was significantly better in the follicular phase. We observed significant negative correlations between progesterone levels and amygdala response to fearful, sad and neutral faces, further supporting a significant modulation of behavior and neural response by hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle. From an evolutionary point of view this significant influence of ovarian hormone level on emotion processing and an important neural correlate, the amygdala, may enable a higher social sensitivity in females during their follicular phase, thus facilitating socio-emotional behavior (and social interaction) which may possibly facilitate mating behavior as well.