Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2019 Sep;107:217-224. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.05.019. Epub 2019 May 21.
A woman's social behaviour reportedly varies across the menstrual cycle. In this study, we estimated changes in sensitivity to social exclusion across the menstrual cycle and scrutinized the related role of progesterone. Forty-nine naturally cycling women played a virtual ball-tossing game (Cyberball) to manipulate social inclusion. All participants underwent inclusion and exclusion conditions during the late follicular and the luteal phase. We assessed salivary progesterone concentrations at each cycle phase. After each Cyberball session we measured positive/negative mood using the Multidimensional Mood State Questionnaire (MDMQ). Multilevel analyses indicated that women showed worse mood following exclusion as compared to inclusion conditions (p = 0.014). Notably, this exclusion effect was more pronounced during the luteal phase than the late follicular phase (p = 0.029). As expected, progesterone concentrations were higher during the luteal phase as compared to the late follicular phase, but interestingly, progesterone concentrations were negatively associated with exclusion effects. When accounting for mediation via progesterone, direct cycle-phase related differences in social exclusion effects even increased as compared to the model without mediator. These findings suggest that progesterone may function as buffer against negative feelings that result from being socially excluded. The relevance of these findings for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) are discussed, and we conclude that social exclusion may represent an important research domain criterion (RDoC) of relevance for PMDD, with progesterone pointing to new potential pharmacological targets.
据报道，女性的社会行为在月经周期中会发生变化。在这项研究中，我们估计了女性对社会排斥的敏感性在月经周期中的变化，并仔细研究了孕激素的相关作用。49 名自然周期的女性参与了一个虚拟的抛球游戏（Cyberball），以模拟社会排斥。所有参与者在卵泡晚期和黄体期都接受了包含和排斥的条件。我们在每个周期阶段测量了唾液中的孕激素浓度。在每次 Cyberball 之后，我们使用多维情绪状态问卷（MDMQ）来评估正/负性情绪。多层次分析表明，与包含条件相比，女性在被排斥后情绪更差（p=0.014）。值得注意的是，这种排斥效应在黄体期比卵泡晚期更为明显（p=0.029）。正如预期的那样，黄体期的孕激素浓度高于卵泡晚期，但有趣的是，孕激素浓度与排斥效应呈负相关。当考虑到孕激素的中介作用时，即使与没有中介的模型相比，与周期阶段直接相关的社会排斥效应的差异甚至更大。这些发现表明，孕激素可能作为一种缓冲，减轻因被社会排斥而产生的负面情绪。讨论了这些发现对经前烦躁障碍（PMDD）的意义，我们得出结论，社会排斥可能是 PMDD 相关的重要研究领域标准（RDoC），而孕激素则指向新的潜在药物靶点。
