In rodents, cyclically fluctuating levels of gonadal @entity134 hormones modulate neural plasticity by altering synaptic transmission and synaptogenesis. Alterations of mood and cognition observed during the menstrual cycle suggest that @entity134 -related plasticity also occurs in @entity1 . Cycle phase-dependent differences in cognitive performance have almost exclusively been found in tasks probing lateralized neuronal domains, i.e., cognitive domains such as language, which are predominantly executed by one hemisphere. To search for neural correlates of hormonally mediated neural plasticity in @entity1 , we thus conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study measuring brain activity related to a semantic decision task in the language domain. This was contrasted with a letter-matching task in the perceptual domain, in which we expected no @entity134 hormone-mediated effect. We investigated 12 young healthy @entity1 in a counterbalanced repeated-measure design during low- @entity134 menstruation and high- @entity134 midluteal phase. @entity134 serum levels correlated with the volume and lateralization of particular brain activations related to the semantic task but not with brain activity related to the perceptual task. More specifically, bilateral superior temporal recruitment correlated positively with @entity1420 and medial superior frontal recruitment with both @entity1420 and @entity53 serum levels, whereas activations in inferior and middle frontal cortex were unaffected by @entity134 levels. In contrast to these specific interactions, @entity251 levels correlated nonselectively with overall activation levels by neural and/or vascular factor(s). In conclusion, our data demonstrate @entity134 hormone responsivity in the adult @entity1 brain by revealing neural plasticity in the language domain, which appears hormone, task, and region specific.

Menstrual cycle-dependent neural plasticity in the adult XXXX brain is hormone, task, and region specific.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['women', 'humans', 'human'] @entity251 :: ('MESH:D013739', 'Chemical') :: ['testosterone'] @entity1420 :: ('MESH:D011374', 'Chemical') :: ['progesterone'] @entity53 :: ('MESH:D004958', 'Chemical') :: ['estradiol'] @entity134 :: ('CHEBI:35341', 'Chemical') :: ['Steroid', 'steroid']
@entity1 :: (9606,Species) :: ['human']
