Fig 1.
Typical changes in estradiol and progesterone across the menstrual cycle along with associations between menstrual cycle phase and hippocampal structure [14, 16, 17].
Fig 2.
A schematic of the MST task procedure (figure adapted from [
42]). Participant saw a contiguous sequence of real-world stimuli that were either novel, repeated, or highly similar to previously seen items. For each item, participants indicated whether they thought it was “old”, “new”, or “similar”. The task consisted of 128 trials.
Fig 3.
Effects of menstrual cycle on MST performance.
(A) Overall lure accuracy for the three conditions: foil, target and rule. There is a distinct non-linear effect of cycle point on accuracy for lures, but not for foils or targets, showing a decrease in accuracy in the ML phase of the cycle. (B) Rate of responding “old” for each condition. There is a non-linear effect of cycle point on “old” responses for lures, with an increase in ML phase of the cycle. (C) Rate of responding “similar” for each condition. There is a non-linear effect of cycle point on “similar” responses for lures, with a slight increase in LF phase and a decrease in ML phase. GAM model estimates are depicted with thick lines; shaded regions depict 95% confidence intervals.
Fig 4.
Positive associations between perceived stress and overall accuracy for lures (A) and lure accuracy across the menstrual cycle by perceived stress score (B). Higher perceived stress is associated with higher lure accuracy. Lure accuracy peaks in the LF phase of the cycle and decreases in ML phase of the cycle. Thick lines represent marginal model estimates; shaded regions represent 95% confidence intervals.