Estrogen- and progesterone-mediated structural neuroplasticity in women: evidence from neuroimaging

Abstract

There is substantial evidence that the ovarian sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, which vary considerably over the course of the human female lifetime, contribute to changes in brain structure and function. This structured, quantitative literature reviews aims to summarize neuroimaging literature addressing physiological variation in brain macro- and microstructure across an array of hormonal transitions including the menstrual cycle, use of hormonal contraceptives, pregnancy, and menopause. Twenty-five studies reporting structural neuroimaging of women, addressing variation across hormonal states, were identified from a structured search of PUBMED and were systematically reviewed. Although the studies are heterogenous with regard to methodology, overall the results point to overlapping areas of hormone related effects on brain structure particularly affecting the structures of the limbic system. These findings are in keeping with functional data that point to a role for estrogen and progesterone in mediating emotional processing.

Effects of hypogonadism on brain development during adolescence in girls with Turner syndrome

“…Interestingly, our currently observed GM clusters around the mOFC and WM clusters around the thalamus radiation and cingulum are both located within the limbic network, which is a key target of ovarian sex hormones (Braun, 2011;Catenaccio, Mu, & Lipton, 2016).…”

“…Interestingly, our currently observed GM clusters around the mOFC and WM clusters around the thalamus radiation and cingulum are both located within the limbic network, which is a key target of ovarian sex hormones (Braun, ; Catenaccio, Mu, & Lipton, ). Particularly, the observed “group‐by‐age” interaction effects of the GM and WM clusters are very convergent in the two TS groups: the subnormal group exhibited a “near‐typical” development, while the abnormal group had an “off‐track” developmental change.…”

Ovarian hormones: a long overlooked but critical contributor to cognitive brain structures and function

“…Recent findings are also limited in number and methodologically heterogeneous; however, they point to menstrual cycle changes in a number of brain regions, with a particular focus on the hippocampus . Key studies from the past 5 years are summarized in Table .…”

“…Finally, a number of other regions have been reported to change in size across the menstrual cycle and demonstrate associations with hormone levels . These include the fusiform, other temporal regions, the medial frontal cortex, and the insula.…”

Toward valid and reliable brain imaging results in eating disorders

“…Recognizing these differences is important as these are neurotrophic hormones that may affect brain volume (Brown et al, 2015;Giedd, Raznahan, Mills, & Lenroot, 2012) or function (Dedovic, D'Aguiar, & Pruessner, 2009;Kim, 2016). In imaging studies in females, for example, sex hormone status (e.g., menstrual cycle phase and oral contraceptives) has been shown to impact brain structure (e.g., GM volume of limbic regions) (Catenaccio, Mu, & Lipton, 2016) and function (e.g., fMRI activation in brain regions involved in reward or emotional processing and cognitive functioning) (Dreher et al, 2007;Toffoletto, Lanzenberger, Gingnell, Sundstrom-Poromaa, & Comasco, 2014). Also, hormones often have a diurnal rhythm, and their secretion may be stimulated or suppressed by food intake, exercise or stress.…”