Sex difference and menstrual cycle effects on semantic priming and remembering<p>Anlamsal hazırlama ve hatırlamada cinsiyet farkı ve menstural dönem etkileri
Keywords:
Sex Difference, Menstrual Cycle, Semantic Priming, Remembering, Cinsiyet Farkı, Menstural Dönem, Anlamsal Hazırlama, HatırlamaAbstract
Purpose: It is known that women and men may have different performance in some cognitive tasks and different hemispheric specializations. However, results of the sex difference studies are not always consistent. Recent studies indicate that some cognitive abilities of women fluctuate throughout menstrual cycle. In this study, it is aimed to find out if men and women in ovulation and menstruation phases perform differently in semantic priming (SP) task and remembering task. Additionally, it is aimed to find out if there is any hemispheric specialization in SP. Methods: Seventy two women and 29 men undergraduate students participated to the study. Two pictures were presented successively to participants for SP. The first picture was presented for 100 msec on the left-side, right-side or the center of the screen according to the experimental condition by using visual half-field technique and the second picture was presented on the center. Participants were required to report if two pictures were related or unrelated. After the SP task, participants chose stimuli that they had rememberred from a list of the stimuli in the experiment in one-minute period.
Findings: Results indicated that all groups had shown SP and there was no hemispheric specialization. Men responded related pictures faster than women in ovulation period however, no difference was observed between men and women in menstruation phase. Similarly, men remembered more stimuli than the women in ovulation phase. But no difference was observed between the number of stimuli remembered by the men and women in menstruation phase.
Discussion and Conclusion: Generally findings indicated that cognitive sex differences might change according to the menstrual phase of women and these cyclical changes should be considered in reviewing the results of sex difference studies or conducting new research. It was proposed that cyclical cognitive sex differences might be related to hormonal levels those fluctuate across the menstrual cycle. The findings were discussed in the context of the negative effects of increasing luteinizing hormone (LH) levels on attentional and executive functions in both ovulatory phase and Alzheimer’s disease.
Özet
Amaç: Kadınların ve erkeklerin bazı bilişsel işlemlerde ve hemisferik özelleşmelerde farklılık gösterdiği; buna karşın, cinsiyet farklılıklarına ilişkin çalışmaların her zaman çok tutarlı olmadığı bilinmektedir. Son dönemlerde yapılan çalışmalar, kadınlardaki bilişsel becerilerin menstural döneme bağlı olarak dalgalanma gösterebildiğine işaret etmiştir. Sunulan çalışmada erkeklerin ve farklı menstural dönemdeki kadınların (yumurtlama ve mensturasyon) anlamsal hazırlama (AH) ve hatırlama görevindeki peformansları yönünden farklılık gösterip göstermediğini incelemek amaçlanmıştır. Ayrıca AH görevinde cinsiyete özgü hemisferik özelleşme olup olmadığı incelenmiştir.
Yöntem: Çalışmaya 72 kadın ve 29 erkek üniversite öğrencisi katılmıştır. AH görevi için katılımcılara arka arkaya iki resim gösterilmiştir. Görsel-yarı alan tekniği kullanılarak ve deney gruplarına uygun olarak ilk resim sol görsel alanda, sağ görsel alanda ya da merkezde100ms sunulmuş; katılımcılardan merkezde sunulan birinci resimle ikinci resmin ilişkili olup olmadığını belirtmeleri istenmiştir. AH görevinin ardından katılımcılara deneydeki uyarıcıların bir listesi verilmiş ve bunun içinden hatırladıklarını bir dakikalık sürede işartlemeleri istenmiştir.
Bulgular: Tüm gruplarda AH etkisinin olduğu; ancak bu göreve ilişkin bir hemisferik özelleşmenin olmadığı bulunmuştur. Erkekler ilişkili resimleri yumurtlama dönemindeki kadınlardan daha hızlı değerlendirirken, mensturasyon dönemindeki kadınlarla böyle bir farklılık gözlenmemiştir. Benzer şekilde erkeklerin hatırladıkları genel uyarıcı ve ilişkisiz uyarıcı sayısı, yumurtlama dönemindeki kadınlardan daha fazlayken, mensturasyon dönemindeki kadınlarla erkekler arasında hatırlanan uyarıcı sayısı bakımından bir farklılık bulunmamıştır.
Tartışma ve Sonuç: Genel olarak bulgular, bilişsel görevlerde gözlenen cinsiyet farklılıklarının kadının içerisinde bulunduğu menstural döneme bağlı olarak değişebileceğini; cinsiyet farkı çalışmalarının sonuçlarının değerlendirilmesinde ve yeni çalışmaların kurgulanmasında bu dönemsel değişimin göz önünde bulundurulmasının gerekliliğini ortaya koymaktadır. İncelenen görevlerdeki cinsiyet farkının menstural döneme bağlı olarak değişmesinin kadındaki döngüsel hormon düzeyleri ile ilişkili olduğu düşünülmektedir. Özellikle kadınların yumurtlama döneminde erkeklerden daha düşük performans göstermesi, kadınlarda yumurtlama döneminde yükselen ve Alzheimer hastalarında da yükseldiği bilinen luteinizing hormonun (LH) bellek ve yürütücü işlevler üzerindeki olumsuz etkisi bağlamında değerlendirilmiştir.
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