ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2015
Estradiol levels modulate brain activity and negative responses to psychosocial stress across the menstrual cycle.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 115 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
115 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 220 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Effect of Menstrual Cycle on Perceptual Responses in Athletes: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Depression and obesity among females, are sex specificities considered?Archives of women's mental health · 2021Pooled it
- Association of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor rs6265 G>A polymorphism and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder susceptibility: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Brain and behavior · 2021Pooled it
- Testosterone in Female Depression: A Meta-Analysis and Mendelian Randomization Study.Biomolecules · 2021Pooled it
- Effects of Brief Breathwork Under a State of Cognitive Fatigue on Subjective Well-Being and Diaphragm Function: A Randomized Crossover Design.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2026Trial
- Correlation Between Lactic Acid Bacteria Beverage Intake and Stress Resilience.The Kobe journal of medical sciences · 2021Trial
- Brain activation and subjective anxiety during an anticipatory anxiety task is related to clinical outcome during prazosin treatment for alcohol use disorder.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2020Trial
- Ovarian Hormones and Transdermal Nicotine Administration Independently and Synergistically Suppress Tobacco Withdrawal Symptoms and Smoking Reinstatement in the Human Laboratory.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2018Trial
- Review
- Longitudinal effects of lifetime trauma exposure and childhood sexual trauma by gender in individuals with first episode psychosis.The British journal of clinical psychology · 2026Article
- Synaptic Actions of Estradiol in the Brain's Reward System: Linking Mechanisms to Behavior and Disease.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Review
- Increased p-Tau181 Levels After Overnight Wakefulness Are Associated With Neuroticism in Young Women.Journal of sleep research · 2026Article
- Sex differences in neural stress responses over psychosocial stress exposure.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- An Overarching Conceptual Framework for Menstrual Health in Sport Research: Theory, Causality and Validation.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Review
- Psychoneuroendocrine Associations with Momentary Pelvic Pain in Endometriosis.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- Altered Cortical Structure in Primary Dysmenorrhea: Cortical Thickness Mediates the Association Between Estradiol and Pain Catastrophizing.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Exploring psychophysiological stress variability across menstrual phases: insights from a tertiary care centre in eastern Uttar Pradesh.International journal of physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology · 2026Article
- Analysis of complete blood counts and derived inflammatory indices with non-suicidal self-injury and suicide attempt in adolescents with major depressive disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Metabolic state shapes cortisol reactivity to acute stress: A systematic review and meta-analysis of metabolic and hormonal modulators.Neurobiology of stress · 2025Article
- Impact of social exclusion on salivary progesterone and estradiol in women with borderline personality disorder.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2025Article
55 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Although ovarian hormones are thought to have a potential role in the well-known sex difference in mood and anxiety disorders, the mechanisms through which ovarian hormone changes contribute to stress regulation are not well understood. One mechanism by which ovarian hormones might impact mood regulation is by mediating the effect of psychosocial stress, which often precedes depressive episodes and may have mood consequences that are particularly relevant in women. In the current study, brain activity and mood response to psychosocial stress was examined in healthy, normally cycling women at either the high or low estradiol phase of the menstrual cycle. Twenty eight women were exposed to the Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST), with brain activity determined through functional magnetic resonance imaging, and behavioral response assessed with subjective mood and stress measures. Brain activity responses to psychosocial stress differed between women in the low versus high estrogen phase of the menstrual cycle: women with high estradiol levels showed significantly less deactivation in limbic regions during psychosocial stress compared to women with low estradiol levels. Additionally, women with higher estradiol levels also had less subjective distress in response to the MIST than women with lower estradiol levels. The results of this study suggest that, in normally cycling premenopausal women, high estradiol levels attenuate the brain activation changes and negative mood response to psychosocial stress. Normal ovarian hormone fluctuations may alter the impact of psychosocially stressful events by presenting periods of increased vulnerability to psychosocial stress during low estradiol phases of the menstrual cycle. This menstrual cycle-related fluctuation in stress vulnerability may be relevant to the greater risk for affective disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder in women.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.