Study Looks at Women’s Brains and Rewards

Fluctuations in hormones during women’s menstrual cycles affect how their brains respond to rewards, the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., said.

An imaging study by the National Institute of Mental Health showed while women were winning rewards, their circuitry was more active if they were in a menstrual phase preceding ovulation and dominated by estrogen, compared to a phase when estrogen and progesterone are present, researchers said.

These first pictures of sex hormones influencing reward-evoked brain activity in humans may provide insights into menstrual-related mood disorders, women’s higher rates of mood and anxiety disorders, and their later onset and less severe course in schizophrenia, said Karen Berman, chief of the NIMH Section on Integrative Neuroimaging.

The study may also shed light on why women are more vulnerable to addictive drugs during the pre-ovulation phase of the cycle.

Researchers scanned men’s and women’s brains while they were using simulated slot machines.