Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40290539›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in psychology2025

Assessing the association between menstrual cycle phase and voice-gender categorization: no robust evidence for an association.

Sarah Friedrich, Edward S Brodkin, Birgit Derntl, Ute Habel, Philippa Hüpen

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Sarah FriedrichDepartment of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Aachen, Germany.
Edward S BrodkinDepartment of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Birgit DerntlDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Ute HabelDepartment of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Aachen, Germany.
Philippa HüpenDepartment of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Aachen, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Introduction: Hormone fluctuations during the menstrual cycle are known to influence a wide variety of cognitive-emotional processes and behavior. Mate choice and changes in attractiveness ratings for faces and voices are often investigated in this context, but research on changes in voice-gender perception independent of attractiveness ratings is rare even though the voice is an essential element in social interactions. For this reason, we investigated the influence of cycle phase and levels of estrogen and progesterone on performance in a voice-gender categorization task. Our expectation was to find a more pronounced other-sex effect, so faster and more accurate reactions for masculine voices, in the follicular (fertile) phase than in the luteal phase. Methods: We measured 65 healthy, naturally-cycling women, half of them in the follicular phase and the other half in the luteal phase. For the analyses, we used signal detection theory (SDT) measures in addition to reaction times and percent of correct reactions. The study was preregistered after measuring the first 33 participants and prior to any data analyses (https://osf.io/dteyn). Results: Cycle phase and hormone levels showed no significant effect on reaction time or SDT measures. This was the case both using frequentist analyses and Bayesian statistics. Reaction time was influenced by voice-gender, with faster reactions for feminine voices compared to masculine voices in both cycle phases. Discussion: Taken together, our results add to the increasing number of studies that do not find an interaction of menstrual cycle phase and reaction to gendered stimuli.

Indexed as

estradiolfollicular phaseluteal phasemating cuesmenstrual cycleprogesteronesignal detection theoryvoice-gender categorization

Identifiers

PMID40290539
PMCPMC12031663

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.