Neurobiological aspects of womens' reactivity towards emotional cues in dependence of the menstrual cycle
Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
Final Report Abstract
In this project, the neurobiological foundations of the responsiveness to highly salient positive emotional stimuli (erotic images, positively valenced images) were to be investigated. In the long term, the aim was to better understand the associations of hormonal fluctuations in women with responsiveness to positive emotions and to examine the neurobiological foundations of altered processing. Findings from this are relevant for studies on women (as well as for gender differences between men and women) – it could make a difference at which phase of the cycle the women are examined, and there is also a high practical relevance simply due to the widespread use of hormonal contraceptives, as this responsiveness could also be altered. The goal of this study was to investigate to what extent hormonal fluctuations over the menstrual cycle are related to the processing of highly salient positive emotional stimuli. This was done using EEG recordings and subsequent evaluation of event-related potentials (ERPs). The results of an emotional word paradigm and responsiveness in an ERP, which is associated with motivational salience (the 'Late Positive Potential' - 'LPP') in association with estradiol, which were reported in a previous study from this department, were to be extended in the present study to include images with high salience (also erotic material): three data collection points of the women at different cycle phases with respective EEG measurement were carried out. Furthermore, various sex hormones (in saliva) were measured during the surveys – estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone. As a control group, women taking an estrogen-progestogen preparation ('micropill') were studied. Additionally, a differential responsiveness to erotic images depending on the estrogen receptor gene polymorphism rs2234693 "PvuII" were supposed to be examined. An exploratory investigation was also planned to be conducted in order to assess the extent to which selfreport measures at the questionnaire level correlate with physiological responsiveness in the Late Positive Potential (LPP) and humoral measures. Furthermore, potential associations between those explicit measures and allele variants of the estrogen receptor gene polymorphism rs2234693 "PvuII" were supposed to be explored.
Publications
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Event-Related Potentials in Women on the Pill: Neural Correlates of Positive and Erotic Stimulus Processing in Oral Contraceptive Users. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 15.
Schmidt, Norina M.; Hennig, Juergen & Munk, Aisha J. L.
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Poster auf der Tagung „Psychologie und Gehirn 2022": Sexual cue processing across the oral contraceptive regimen: Neural correlates and self-reported sexual desire“
Norina Manon Schmidt
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Symposiumsbeitrag auf der Tagung „Psychologie und Gehirn 2023“: „Neural Correlates Of Erotic Stimulus Processing In Naturally Cycling Women“
Norina Manon Schmidt
