title: Sex hormones affect language lateralisation but not cognitive control in normally cycling women.
abstract: This article is part of a Special Issue "Estradiol and Cognition". Natural fluctuations of sex hormones during the menstrual cycle have been shown to modulate language lateralisation. Using the dichotic listening (DL) paradigm, a well-established measurement of language lateralisation, several studies revealed that the left hemispheric language dominance was stronger when levels of estradiol were high. A recent study (Hjelmervik et al., 2012) showed, however, that high levels of follicular estradiol increased lateralisation only in a condition that required participants to cognitively control (top-down) the stimulus-driven (bottom-up) response. This finding suggested that sex hormones modulate lateralisation only if cognitive control demands are high. The present study investigated language lateralisation in 73 normally cycling women under three attention conditions that differed in cognitive control demands. Saliva estradiol and progesterone levels were determined by luminescence immunoassays. Women were allocated to a high or low estradiol group. The results showed a reduced language lateralisation when estradiol and progesterone levels were high. The effect was independent of the attention condition indicating that estradiol marginally affected cognitive control. The findings might suggest that high levels of estradiol especially reduce the stimulus-driven (bottom-up) aspect of lateralisation rather than top-down cognitive control.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom. Electronic address: s.l.hodgetts@dur.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hodgetts
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weis
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hausmann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004958:Estradiol / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008597:Menstrual Cycle / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000523:psychology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004958:Estradiol
keywords: Cognitive control; Dichotic listening; Estradiol; Language lateralisation; Progesterone