Sex, menstrual cycle, and hormonal contraceptives influences on global–local processing
Metadata
Show full item recordEditorial
Elsevier
Materia
Sex differences Menstrual cycle Hormonal contraceptives Sex hormones Global-local task Global advantage
Date
2021-09-24Referencia bibliográfica
A. Marful, D. Paolieri, A. Bernal, Sex, menstrual cycle, and hormonal contraceptives influences on global–local processing, Psychoneuroendocrinology, Volume 134, 2021, 105430, ISSN 0306-4530, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105430]
Sponsorship
Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (National I + D Plan: PSI2017–89324-C2–1- P and PSI2017–89324-C2–2-P); Universidad de Granada / CBUAAbstract
The effect of sex hormones on global–local tasks has rarely been studied, offering, when done, conflicting results
possibly modulated by the congruency between hierarchical stimuli, and by the attentional demands. Here, we
examined the global advantage (GA) effect in men (with high testosterone levels), women in the mid-luteal phase
(with high levels of estradiol and progesterone), in the ovulatory phase (with high estradiol but low progesterone
levels); and in the early follicular phase and with hormonal contraceptive (HC) use (with low sex hormone
levels). The level of processing (global–local), the congruency (congruent vs. incongruent), and attentional demands
(divided vs. selective) were manipulated. The divided-incongruent condition was sensible to estradiol and
progesterone levels and, in this condition, mid-luteal women performed more locally while men performed more
globally. The selective-incongruent condition was sensible to the testosterone level and, in this condition, men
were faster. The HC group showed a congruency effect in the GA reaction times (RTs) during both, divided and
selective conditions. Finally, the GA RTs of the ovulatory group differed from the early follicular and mid-luteal
groups only in the congruent-selective condition, but the performance was not related with sex hormone levels.
This result is interpreted in relation with the brain effects of estradiol in the absence but not in the presence of
progesterone. Thus, sex, menstrual cycle, HC, task difficulty and sex hormones seem to modulate performance in
the global–local task. These factors represent an important source of variability in studies focused on the processing
of hierarchical stimuli and allow apparently inconsistent data to be explained.