1
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Creative thinking and its relation to the menstrual cycle Translated title: El pensamiento creativo y su relación con el ciclo menstrual

      research-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Creativity, understood as a cerebral function that generates products that are both novel and practical, is one factor that allows us to better adapt to our environment. Sexual hormones, meanwhile, have effects on the central nervous system that can modify it, either temporarily or permanently. It has been shown that these two aspects are interrelated in women, as cerebral activity varies with the phases of the menstrual cycle; for example, in performance on memory-related tasks. Thus, the objective of this research was to determine whether changes in verbal and figural creativity occur during the three phases of the cycle: menstrual, follicular and luteal. The study evaluated 28 healthy women and 10 healthy men, all 18-to-25-year-old undergraduate students. Creativity was measured using the scales from the verbal and figural sections of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT), Forms A and B (counterbalanced), in three sessions programmed to coincide with the three phases of the female subjects' menstrual cycles. Also, the women filled out the Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ). For the male participants, the three applications were timed to coincide with the phases of the women's cycles. Though no significant differences were observed in verbal and figural creative thinking among the phases of the menstrual cycle, significant gender differences were seen, as men achieved higher scores than women on some aspects of figural creativity when the latter were in the follicular and luteal phases. The study concludes that differences in the levels of sexual hormones between men and women influence performance on creativity tasks, and that figural creativity proved to be more sensitive to hormonal change. Finally, the factors of Intellectual Quotient (IQ) (evaluated by the WAIS test), and verbal and spatial abilities (assessed using the DAT test), were not found to have any effect on creativity.

          Translated abstract

          La creatividad entendida como una función cerebral que genera productos nuevos y prácticos, es un factor que nos permite adaptarnos mejor al ambiente. Las hormonas sexuales, por otro lado, tienen ejercen influencia sobre el sistema nervioso central que puede modificarlo de manera temporal o permanente. Se ha demostrado que estos dos aspectos están relacionados en las mujeres, ya que la actividad cerebral varía con las fases del ciclo menstrual; por ejemplo en las ejecuciones en tareas relacionadas a la memoria. El objetivo de esta investigación fue determinar si ocurrían cambios en la creatividad verbal y figural durante las tres fases del ciclo: menstrual, folicular y luteal. El estudio evaluó a 28 mujeres sanas y a 10 hombres sanos, todos ellos alumnos de licenciatura con edades entre 18 y 25. La creatividad se midió empleando las secciones verbales y figurales de la Prueba de pensamiento creativo de Torrance (PPCT), formas A y B (contrabalanceadas), en tres sesiones programadas para que coincidieran con las tres fases de los ciclos menstruales en las participantes. También las mujeres contestaron el cuestionario de distrés menstrual (CDM). Para los hombres participantes, las tres aplicaciones se programaron para que coincidieran con las fases de los ciclos de las mujeres. A pesar de que no se observaron diferencias significativas en el pensamiento creativo verbal, ni el figural ente las fases del ciclo menstrual, se registraron diferencias significativas por género, ya que los hombres alcanzaron puntajes mas elevados que las mujeres en algunos aspectos de creatividad figural cuando ellas atravesaron las fases folicular y luteal. El estudio concluye que las diferencias en los niveles de las hormonas sexuales entre hombres y mujeres afectaron la ejecución en las tareas de creatividad, y que la creatividad figural fue mas sensitiva al cambio hormonal. Finalmente ni el coeficiente intelectual (CI) evaluado mediante la prueba WAIS, ni las habilidades verbales y espaciales valoradas mediante la prueba DAT, tuvieron efectos sobre la creatividad.

          Related collections

          Most cited references34

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          Sex hormones affect spatial abilities during the menstrual cycle.

          The aim of this study was (a) to show that different measures of spatial cognition are modulated by the menstrual cycle and (b) to analyze which steroid is responsible for these cognitive alterations. The authors collected blood samples in 3-day intervals over 6 weeks from 12 young women with a regular menstrual cycle to analyze concentrations of estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, luteinizing hormone, and follicle-stimulating hormone. The performance on 3 spatial tests was measured during the menstrual and the midluteal phases. A significant cycle difference in spatial ability as tested by the Mental Rotation Test was found, with high scores during the menstrual phase and low scores during the midluteal phase. Testosterone had a strong and positive influence on mental rotation performance, whereas estradiol had a negative one. These results clearly indicate that testosterone and estradiol are able to modulate spatial cognition during the menstrual cycle.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Estrogen and cognitive functioning in women.

            Research in basic neuroscience has provided biological plausibility for the hypothesis that estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) would protect against cognitive aging in healthy women. The weight of the evidence from randomized controlled trials of estrogen and cognition in women shows that this hormone preferentially protects verbal memory in postmenopausal women, whereas findings from observational studies are less consistent and show a more diffuse effect of estrogen on a range of cognitive functions. There is fairly consistent evidence from epidemiological studies that ERT significantly reduces the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in women. On the other hand, findings from controlled treatment trials of women diagnosed with probable AD failed to show that physiological doses of ERT ameliorate existing deficits in cognitive functioning and/or prevent further deterioration in memory that inevitably occurs in these women over time. Finally, an accumulating body of evidence is beginning to suggest that the immediate postmenopausal period may constitute a critical window for treatment with ERT that maximizes its potential to protect against cognitive decline with aging and/or to reduce the risk of AD.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Orbitofrontal cortex activity related to emotional processing changes across the menstrual cycle.

              The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has been implicated in the representation of emotional stimuli, assignment of emotional valence/salience to stimuli, stimulus-reinforcement association learning, motivation, and socio-emotional control. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in female subjects without premenstrual mood symptoms, we found that OFC activity to emotional linguistic stimuli varies depending on the menstrual cycle phase. Specifically, anterior-medial OFC activity for negative vs. neutral stimuli was increased premenstrually and decreased postmenstrually. The inverse pattern was seen in the lateral OFC. These findings suggest that specific subregional OFC activity to emotional stimuli is modulated across the menstrual cycle. The data also demonstrate that menstrual cycle phase is an important consideration in further studies attempting to elucidate the neural substrates of affective representation.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Journal
                jbhsi
                Journal of behavior, health & social issues (México)
                J. behav. health soc. ISSUES
                Asociación Mexicana de Comportamiento y Salud, A.C. (Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico )
                2007-0780
                2012
                : 4
                : 2
                : 91-102
                Affiliations
                [01] Distrito Federal orgnameUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México orgdiv1Facultad de Psicología México laura.ortega.leonard@ 123456gmail.com
                [02] México D.F. orgnameUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México orgdiv1Facultad de Psicología orgdiv2Laboratorio de Sueño y Coordinación de Psicofisiología iyrp@ 123456unam.mx
                Article
                S2007-07802012000200008 S2007-0780(12)00400200008
                10.5460/jbhsi.v4.2.34110
                53f5e620-fc70-4c47-be0f-08662a83c713

                This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

                History
                : 13 July 2012
                : 30 September 2012
                : 24 September 2012
                Page count
                Figures: 0, Tables: 0, Equations: 0, References: 35, Pages: 12
                Product

                SciELO Mexico

                Categories
                Empirical articles

                verbal creativity,creatividad figurativa,creatividad verbal,ciclo menstrual,Pensamiento creativo,figural creativity,menstrual cycle,Creative thinking

                Comments

                Comment on this article