Hormonal fluctuations across the menstrual cycle and their impact on speech: A data mining, modelling and resource generation project
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Human Communication Sciences
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
Publications
Cowell PE
(2025)
Cognitive strategy in verbal fluency: sex differences, menstrual cycle, and menopause effects.
in Cognitive processing
Cowell PE
(2011)
Hormones and dichotic listening: evidence from the study of menstrual cycle effects.
in Brain and cognition
Maitreyee, R.
(2013)
Temporal production of words across the menstrual cycle
in British Psychological Society Annual Meeting
Patricia Cowell (author)
(2010)
Changes in speech perception asymmetry as a function of menstrual cycle phase and ovarian hormones
in Organization for the Study of Sex Differences
| Description | This project was based on a growing field of research which supports the role of reproductive hormones in shaping human brain and behaviour. An important set of behaviours affected by hormones in many species are those related to communication. Our main focus was to study the impact of female reproductive hormones on human speech. We studied healthy women at various points in the menstrual cycle that coincided with particular hormone level combinations. Prior studies from our laboratory reported that high levels of hormones were associated with patterns of speech production (saying words or syllables) which we were able to measure with very fine-grained analysis of the speech waveform. We also found differences in the perception of speech (detecting syllables) and in complex verbal tasks (creating word lists). More recently we started to take direct measures of hormone levels by analysing blood samples from our study volunteers. This has allowed us to examine more precise links between ovarian hormones and speech. The ESRC grant supported a year of detailed analysis of thousands of speech samples and the compilation of an extensive database of hormones, speech and related behaviour. The database contains information about 25 women studied across two phases of the menstrual cycle, 30 women studied across three phases of the menstrual cycle, and 20 men. It is a unique resource that our research group will continue to analyse for a more in-depth understanding about the role that hormones play in modulating complex communication functions in healthy women. |
| Exploitation Route | These findings add to growing scientific literatures in the psychology and cognitive neuroscience of sex differences and hormone effects on behaviour and cognition. Our findings specifically inform the body of research investigating menstrual cycle effects on behavioural measures of speech perception and speech production. We built an extensive database which will serve our laboratory for many years in the development of coherent models of how reproductive hormones modulate speech functions in healthy women. Specific discoveries, such as the stratification of effects in women experiencing regular or atypical menstrual cycles, have broader biomedical relevance. New work is examining applications of the menstrual cycle based model on young women to the study of menopause in healthy women at mid-life. Efforts to inform the wider public about the effects of hormones on women's communication, as well as the factors that contribute to individual differences, will follow each stage of scientific development and reporting. |
| Sectors | Healthcare |
| Description | The project created a unique database of speech and related behaviour derived from the study of healthy adult men and women aged 20-30 years. Specifically, women were studied at two or three points across the menstrual cycle and men were studied once. Speech measures included novel tasks and professional quality data recordings designed to enable both microacoustic and macrobehavioural analysis of speech. The main theoretical contribution has been to establish that women operate at different functional states which are hormonally related, and that these affect the micro- and macro-behavioural features of communication-based behaviour and cognition. Since completion of the ESRC project, we have collected new data for a study of women in their 40's and 50's which is designed to investigate the speech and related behavioural measures studied in our original database in relation to mid-life hormone changes and menopause. This work would not have been possible without the knowledge and experience gained through the ESRC-funded research. The volunteers from the menopause study frequently express concerns that women's experiences of hormone-related effects on behaviour and cognition are not fully recognised by society. Thus, a future objective is to learn more about women's perceived information gaps regarding hormone effects on communication and cognition. This information would inform the direction of our research and enhance its future impact. Other economic and societal impact has been delivered mainly in the form of education to the clinical practitioners and university students who have read our publications, been to the conference presentations or attended university seminars from our research group. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2011 |
| Sector | Education,Healthcare |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal |