This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Menstrual cycle phase may influence brain response to visual food cues
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
In healthy women, the regions of the brain associated with reward, behavior and emotions responded differently to visual food cues during the luteal phase vs. the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, according to a study using functional MRI.
“Studies in primates and in humans have shown that eating patterns vary across the menstrual cycle, reaching a peak at the midluteal phase compared to the follicular phase,” Ram Weiss, MD, PhD, of the department of human metabolism and nutrition at the Hadassah School of Medicine at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and colleagues wrote. “Such fluctuations in food intake in humans reach on average [about] 250 kcal per day, yet may exceed 500 kcal per day, and are considered part of the attempt to meet the needs of the possible pregnancy. However, the physiological mechanism of this phenomenon is unknown.”
Weiss and colleagues analyzed data from 20 women with regular menstrual cycles and 12 women taking monophasic oral contraceptive pills, all with a stable body weight for at least 3 months. Women in the regular cycle group attended two separate visits in the midfollicular phase (days 7 to 12 of menstrual cycle) and midluteal phase (days 20 to 26 of menstrual cycle). At each visit, women underwent two MRI scans, one following an overnight fast and a second beginning 20 to 30 minutes after ingestion of 75 g glucose. During MRI sessions, participants were scanned while viewing images of high-calorie sweet foods (chocolate cake), high-calorie savory foods (pizza, lasagna) and nonfood objects not associated with eating, and were instructed to indicate “yes” or “no” via a response box whether they wanted what they saw in the images.
Blood samples were collected at baseline and again at 15 to 20 minutes after glucose ingestion to assess serum insulin, progesterone, estrogen, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, cortisol, triglycerides, C-reactive protein, HDL cholesterol and leptin. For control purposes, women in the oral contraceptive group also attended two separate visits during active pill use, using the same time intervals as the regular-cycle group.
Among regular-cycle women, researchers identified activation in the hypothalamus only during the luteal, fasted state. The brain’s reward regions (amygdala, putamen and insula) and frontal regions (anterior cingulate, prefrontal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortexes) showed an effect of hormonal phase, but not of prandial state, according to researchers. However, the brain’s visual regions (calcarine and lateral occipital cortex) showed a dual effect of both prandial state and menstrual phase in both regions, but with no significant interaction.
In the oral contraceptive group, researchers observed no between-visit differences in any brain region, and averaged data from both visits for further analysis. Across all regions tested, women in the oral contraceptive group showed brain activation patterns that resembled those of the luteal phase responses in women in the regular-cycle group. In post hoc analysis evaluating the fasted and fed states separately, similarities persisted between the oral contraceptive group and women in the regular-cycle group in the luteal phase. Androgen, cortisol, testosterone and insulin levels were correlated with reward and visual region activation, according to researchers.
“In this study, we show that cycle phases differ in brain activation in response to food cues,” the researchers wrote. “We show that not only brain regions associated with homeostasis, but also the reward system, the executive frontal areas and the afferent visual areas are activated to a different degree during the luteal compared to the follicular phase in females with regular cycles. However, while in the reward and frontal regions differential activation along the menstrual cycle appeared regardless of prandial state, in the visual regions, a dual effect of prandial state and menstrual phase was observed.”
The observations, along with the correlations between hormonal levels and specific brain activation profiles, may hint at the involvement of sex hormones in modulating increased caloric intake during the luteal phase, researchers noted.
“The relation of these findings with eating behavior and caloric intake throughout the cycle need further investigation,” the researchers wrote. “Such findings may have implications on the design of future diet regimens based on the menstrual cycle rather than on a generic approach.” – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts