title: Estrogen therapy affects right hemisphere functioning in postmenopausal women.
abstract: It has been suggested that hormone therapy (HT) in postmenopausal women differentially affects verbal and visuo-spatial abilities which mainly rely on left hemisphere (LH) and right hemisphere (RH) functioning, respectively. Thus, it seems likely that HT-related effects on cognition are driven by associated hormonal changes and their impact on functional brain organization, and functional cerebral asymmetries (FCAs) in particular. The present study investigated HT-related effects on FCAs in sixty-seven postmenopausal women who received hormone therapy either with estrogen (E) alone (n=14), an E-gestagen combination (n=22) or without HT (control group, n=31). Saliva levels of free E and progesterone (P) were analyzed using chemiluminescence assays. FCAs were measured with the visual half-field (VHF) technique using a word matching and a figural comparison task. In agreement with previous results, a postmenopausal control group showed a left hemisphere (LH) advantage in the verbal task and a right hemisphere (RH) advantage in visuo-spatial processing. In contrast, both HT groups revealed significantly reduced FCAs in the figural comparison task as a result of an E-related decrease in RH performance. The findings suggest that E-therapy in postmenopausal women can affect visuo-spatial abilities by modulating the functional brain organization and RH functioning in particular.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, UK. ulrike.bayer@durham.ac.uk
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bayer
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hausmann
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect / Q000187:drug effects; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D004958:Estradiol / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy; D004967:Estrogens / Q000032:analysis / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D049449:Luminescence; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011372:Progestins / Q000032:analysis / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D004967:Estrogens; D011372:Progestins; D004958:Estradiol