Abstract
There is substantial evidence that the ovarian sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, which vary considerably over the course of the human female lifetime, contribute to changes in brain structure and function. This structured, quantitative literature reviews aims to summarize neuroimaging literature addressing physiological variation in brain macro- and microstructure across an array of hormonal transitions including the menstrual cycle, use of hormonal contraceptives, pregnancy, and menopause. Twenty-five studies reporting structural neuroimaging of women, addressing variation across hormonal states, were identified from a structured search of PUBMED and were systematically reviewed. Although the studies are heterogenous with regard to methodology, overall the results point to overlapping areas of hormone related effects on brain structure particularly affecting the structures of the limbic system. These findings are in keeping with functional data that point to a role for estrogen and progesterone in mediating emotional processing.
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Notes
Despite the relatively late maturation of the uncinate fasciculus, a review of DTI imaging examining the uncinate fasciculus across the lifespan did not identify sex differences in white matter microstructure (Hasan et al. 2009). This is at least suggestive that there may not be a robust relationship between myelination of this structure and the sex hormones.
For further review of functional neuroimaging studies investigating the menstrual cycle and OCP use see Sacher et al. (2013) and Toffoletto et al. (2014). For further review of the putative roles of neurosteroids in symptomatology of PMS, pregnancy, the postpartum period, and menopause, see Pluchino et al. (2013).
Cohen’s d is commonly used to classify the effect size as small (<00.4), medium (0.4–0.7), or large (>0.7) (Rose and Donohoe 2013).
Abbreviations
- ACC:
-
Anterior cingulate cortex
- ADC:
-
Apparent diffusion coefficient
- ALLO:
-
Allopregnanolone
- CNS:
-
Central nervous system
- CSF:
-
Cerebrospinal fluid
- CT:
-
Computed tomography
- EE:
-
Ethinyl estradiol
- ER:
-
Estrogen receptor
- FDR:
-
False discovery rate
- fMRI:
-
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
- FSH:
-
Follicle stimulating hormone
- GABA:
-
Gamma-aminobutryic acid
- GM:
-
Grey matter
- GnRH:
-
Gonadotropin releasing hormone
- GPCR:
-
G-protein coupled receptor
- HRT:
-
Hormone replacement therapy
- IUD:
-
Intrauterine device
- LH:
-
Luteinizing hormone
- MD:
-
Mean diffusivity
- MNI:
-
Montreal Neurological Institute
- MRI:
-
Magnetic resonance imaging
- mRNA:
-
Messenger ribonucleic acid
- OCP:
-
Oral contraceptive pills
- OFC:
-
Orbitofrontal cortex
- PD:
-
Primary dysmenorrhea
- PFC:
-
Prefrontal cortex
- PMDD:
-
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder
- PMS:
-
Premenstrual syndrome
- ROI:
-
Region of interest
- VBM:
-
Voxel based morphometry
- WM:
-
White matter
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Catenaccio, E., Mu, W. & Lipton, M.L. Estrogen- and progesterone-mediated structural neuroplasticity in women: evidence from neuroimaging. Brain Struct Funct 221, 3845–3867 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-016-1197-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-016-1197-x