Inoue Sana, Matsuzawa Tetsuro
Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan.
J Comp Psychol. 2011 Feb;125(1):104-11. doi: 10.1037/a0020870.
Extensive research on human subjects has tried to investigate whether there is a correlation between cognitive performance and the menstrual cycle. Less is known about the relationship between the menstrual cycle and task performance in other cognitive animals. We test whether the secretion of a sex hormone [luteinizing hormone(LH)] influences the performance of cognitive tasks by a female chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) who is part of a long-term cognition research program. We focus on two cognitive tasks: an "easy task," which consists of simple numerical ordering, and a "difficult task," which combines numerical ordering with memorizing the numerals' spatial location. Data on the performance of these cognitive tasks, urine samples, and sexual swelling over six menstrual cycles showed that the chimpanzee's performance accuracy decreased and that the intertrial interval was longer during the LH-surge of the menstrual cycle, but only for the performance of the difficult task. These performance attributes seem to reflect a decrease in attention or motivation during ovulation. In summary, the cognitive performance of a chimpanzee was disturbed by hormonal changes despite her long-term experience in the tasks.
针对人类受试者的大量研究试图探究认知表现与月经周期之间是否存在关联。对于其他认知动物的月经周期与任务表现之间的关系，我们了解得较少。我们测试一种性激素[促黄体生成素（LH）]的分泌是否会影响一只雌性黑猩猩（黑猩猩属）的认知任务表现，这只黑猩猩参与了一项长期认知研究项目。我们重点关注两项认知任务：一项“简单任务”，包括简单的数字排序；另一项“困难任务”，将数字排序与记忆数字的空间位置相结合。关于这些认知任务的表现、尿液样本以及六个月经周期内的性肿胀的数据表明，在月经周期的LH高峰期间，黑猩猩的表现准确性下降，且试验间隔时间更长，但这仅针对困难任务的表现。这些表现特征似乎反映出排卵期间注意力或动机的下降。总之，尽管这只黑猩猩在这些任务上有长期经验，但激素变化仍干扰了其认知表现。
