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Sex hormones affect language lateralisation but not cognitive control in normally cycling women

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Hodgetts, Sophie, Weis, Susanne and Hausmann, Markus (2015) Sex hormones affect language lateralisation but not cognitive control in normally cycling women. Hormones and Behavior, 74. pp. 194-200. ISSN 0018-506X

Item Type: Article

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.

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Depositing User: Sophie Hodgetts

Identifiers

Item ID: 8679
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2015.06.019
ISSN: 0018-506X
URI: http://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/id/eprint/8679
Official URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S...

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Catalogue record

Date Deposited: 22 Jan 2018 17:24
Last Modified: 30 Sep 2020 11:19

Contributors

Author: Sophie Hodgetts
Author: Susanne Weis
Author: Markus Hausmann

University Divisions

Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellbeing
Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellbeing > School of Psychology

Subjects

Sciences > Biomedical Sciences
Psychology > Cognitive Behaviour
Psychology
Sciences

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