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Updated: Feb 23, 2026
Brain Imaging Investigation of the Memory-Enhancing Effect of Emotion
Published on: May 4, 2011
The menstrual cycle affects recognition of emotional expressions: an event-related potential study
Madoka Yamazaki1, Kyoko Tamura1
1Division of Health Science, Daito Bunka University, 560 Iwadono, Higashimatsuyama, Saitama, 355-8501, Japan.
Background:
Several studies have investigated the relationship between behavioral changes and the menstrual cycle in female subjects at a reproductive age. The present study investigated the relationship between the menstrual cycle and emotional face recognition by measuring the N170 component of ERPs.
Methods:
We measured N170 of twelve women in both follicular phase and late luteal phase who were presented with human facial expressions as stimuli (happy and angry).
Results:
In the follicular phase, participants showed a significantly larger response to happy male facial expressions. In the late luteal phase, participants had longer reaction times to all emotional stimuli, and a significantly reduced response to happy faces, especially happy male facial expressions (P<0.001).
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that the menstrual cycle modulates early visual cognitive processing, and highlight the importance of considering the menstrual cycle phase in studies that investigate emotion and cognition.
