Browsing by Subject "Mid luteal phase"

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    Mid-luteal phase progesterone effects on vigilance tasks are modulated by women’s chronotype
    (Elsevier, 2022-03-12) Palmero Jara, Lucía Beatriz; Tortajada Gomariz, Miriam; Campoy Menéndez, Guillermo; Fuentes Melero, Luis José; Martínez Pérez, Víctor; Psicología Básica y Metodología
    Background In this study we assessed the effects of progesterone on vigilance tasks that require sustained attention. In contrast to previous research, we differentiated two components of vigilance: the exogenous component, involved in monotonous and tedious tasks such as the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT); and the endogenous component, involved in tasks that require cognitive control such as the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). Methods A sample of 32 female participants differing in extreme chronotypes were tested at their optimal and non-optimal time-of-day, as secretion of sex hormones follows biological rhythms. Ovulation tests that measure the presence of luteinizing hormone (LH) in urine were used to minimize methodological errors. Women of Morning-type or Evening-type chronotypes completed 4 experimental sessions of the two attentional tasks when they were in their follicular (low progesterone level) and mid-luteal (high progesterone level) phases, both in the morning (8:00 AM) and the evening (8:30 PM). Results Compared with the follicular phase, performance in the mid-luteal phase improved in the Morning-type participants and worsened in the Evening-type participants. This pattern of results was observed only when testing occurred at the optimal time-of-day and with both the PVT and the SART tasks. Conclusion These results suggest that the simultaneous presence of both progesterone and cortisol at 8:00 AM may explain the benefit observed in Morning-type females. In contrast, the low concentration of cortisol along with the reduced benefit of mid-luteal phase progesterone in the evening may account for the worsening in performance observed in Evening-type females.