***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: Although it 's been reported that women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder ( PMDD ) have increased negative mood , appetite ( food cravings and food intake ) , alcohol intake and cognitive deficits premenstrually , few studies have examined these changes concurrently within the same group of women or compared to women without PMDD . Thus , to date , there is not a clear underst and ing of the full range of PMDD symptoms . The present study concurrently assessed  mood and performance tasks  in 29 normally cycling women ( 14 women who met DSM-IV criteria for PMDD and 15 women without PMDD ) . Women had a total of ten sessions : two practice sessions , 4 sessions during the follicular phase and 4 sessions during the late luteal phase of the menstrual cycle . Each session , participants completed mood and food-related question naires , a motor coordination task , performed various cognitive tasks and ate lunch . There was a significant increase in dysphoric mood during the luteal phase in women with PMDD compared to their follicular phase and compared to Control women . Further , during the luteal phase , women with PMDD showed impaired performance on the Immediate and Delayed Word Recall Task , the Immediate and Delayed Digit Recall Task and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test compared to Control women . Women with PMDD , but not Control women , also showed increased desire for food items high in fat during the luteal phase compared to the follicular phase and correspondingly , women with PMDD consumed more calories during the luteal phase ( mostly derived from fat ) compared to the follicular phase . In summary , women with PMDD experience dysphoric mood , a greater desire and actual intake of certain foods and show impaired cognitive performance during the luteal phase . An altered serotonergic system in women with PMDD may be the underlying mechanism for the observed symptoms ; correspondingly , treatment with specific serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( SSRIs ) remains the preferred treatment at this time Estrogen has been shown to influence several brain functions as well as the expression of neuropsychiatric diseases . To date , two estrogen receptor ( ER ) subtypes have been identified , ERalpha and ERbeta . ERalpha messenger ribonucleic acid ( mRNA ) distribution in the human forebrain was recently characterized , and the highest expression was found in restricted areas of the amygdala and hypothalamus . However , no information exists with regard to ERbeta mRNA distribution in the human brain . To this end , the anatomical distribution pattern of ERbeta mRNA expression in the human forebrain was investigated in the present study . Overall , the ERbeta mRNA hybridization signal was relatively low , but the most abundant ERbeta mRNA areas were the hippocampal formation ( primarily the subiculum ) , claustrum , and cerebral cortex ; expression was also present in the subthalamic nucleus and thalamus ( ventral lateral nucleus ) . In contrast to ERalpha ( studied on adjacent brain sections ) , ERbeta mRNA expression was low in the hypothalamus and amygdala . Based on the revealed anatomical distribution of the human ERbeta gene expression , a putative role for ERbeta in the modulation of cognition , memory , and motor functions is suggested Underst and ing genetic factors that affect monoamine neurotransmitters flux in prefrontal cortex may help to further specify the complex neurobiological processes that underlie cognitive function and dysfunction in health and illness . The current study examined the associations between the polymorphisms of dopaminergic ( COMT Met158Val ) and serotoninergic ( 5-HTTLPR ) genes and the sequential pattern of responses in a motor r and om generation task providing well-established indexes for executive functioning in a large sample of 255 healthy women . Participants homozygous for the Met allele of the COMT polymorphism showed impaired inhibition of prepotent responses , whereas individuals homozygous for the s-allele of the 5-HTTLPR showed a restricted ability to up date information in working memory . Taken together the results indicate differentiated influences of dopaminergic and serotonergic genes on important and definite executive sub-processes related to cognitive flexibility BACKGROUND Despite overwhelming evidence that major depression is highly heritable , recent studies have localized only a single depression-related locus reaching genome-wide significance and have yet to identify a causal gene . Focusing on family-based studies of quantitative intermediate phenotypes or endophenotypes , in t and em with studies of unrelated individuals using categorical diagnoses , should improve the likelihood of identifying major depression genes . However , there is currently no empirically derived statistically rigorous method for selecting optimal endophentypes for mental illnesses . Here , we describe the endophenotype ranking value , a new objective index of the genetic utility of endophenotypes for any heritable illness . METHODS Applying endophenotype ranking value analysis to a high-dimensional set of over 11,000 traits drawn from behavioral/neurocognitive , neuroanatomic , and transcriptomic phenotypic domains , we identified a set of objective endophenotypes for recurrent major depression in a sample of Mexican American individuals ( n = 1122 ) from large r and omly selected extended pedigrees . RESULTS Top-ranked endophenotypes included the Beck Depression Inventory , bilateral ventral diencephalon volume , and expression levels of the RNF123 transcript . To illustrate the utility of endophentypes in this context , each of these traits were utlized along with disease status in bivariate linkage analysis . A genome-wide significant quantitative trait locus was localized on chromsome 4p15 ( logarithm of odds = 3.5 ) exhibiting pleiotropic effects on both the endophenotype ( lymphocyte-derived expression levels of the RNF123 gene ) and disease risk . CONCLUSIONS The wider use of quantitative endophenotypes , combined with unbiased methods for selecting among these measures , should spur new insights into the biological mechanisms that influence mental illnesses like major depression There is strong evidence of sex differences in mental rotation tasks . Transsexualism is an extreme gender identity disorder in which individuals seek cross-gender treatment to change their sex . The aim of our study was to investigate if male-to-female ( MF ) and female-to-male ( FM ) transsexuals receiving cross-sex hormonal treatment  have different patterns of cortical activation during a three-dimensional ( 3D ) mental rotation task . An fMRI study was performed using a 3-T scan in a sample of 18 MF and 19 FM under chronic cross-sex hormonal treatment . Twenty-three males and 19 females served as controls . The general pattern of cerebral activation seen while visualizing the rotated and non-rotated figures was similar for all four groups showing strong occipito-parieto-frontal brain activation . However , compared to control males , the activation of MF transsexuals during the task was lower in the superior parietal lobe . Compared to control females , MF transsexuals showed higher activation in orbital and right dorsolateral prefrontal regions and lower activation in the left prefrontal gyrus . FM transsexuals did not differ from either the MF transsexual or control groups . Regression analyses between cerebral activation and the number of months of hormonal treatment showed a significant negative correlation in parietal , occipital and temporal regions in the MF transsexuals . No significant correlations with time were seen in the FM transsexuals . In conclusion , although we did not find a specific pattern of cerebral activation in the FM transsexuals , we have identified a specific pattern of cerebral activation during a mental 3D rotation task in MF transsexuals under cross-sex hormonal treatment that differed from control males in the parietal region and from control females in the orbital prefrontal region . The hypoactivation in MF transsexuals in the parietal region could be due to the hormonal treatment or could reflect a priori cerebral differences between MF transsexual and control subjects OBJECTIVE Most women on combined oral contraceptives ( COC ) report high levels of satisfaction , but 4 - 10 % complain of adverse mood effects . The aim of this r and omized , double-blinded , placebo-controlled trial was to investigate if COC use would induce more pronounced mood symptoms than placebo in women with previous history of COC-induced adverse mood . A second aim was to determine if COC use is associated with changes in brain reactivity in regions previously associated with emotion processing . METHODS Thirty-four women with previous experience of mood deterioration during COC use were r and omized to one treatment cycle with a levonorgestrel-containing COC or placebo . An emotional face matching task ( vs. geometrical shapes ) was administered during functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI ) prior to and during the COC treatment cycle . Throughout the trial , women recorded daily symptom ratings on the Cyclicity Diagnoser ( CD ) scale . RESULTS During the last week of the treatment cycle COC users had higher scores of depressed mood , mood swings , and fatigue than placebo users . COC users also had lower emotion-induced reactivity in the left insula , left middle frontal gyrus , and bilateral inferior frontal gyri as compared to placebo users . In comparison with their pretreatment cycle , the COC group had decreased emotion-induced reactivity in the bilateral inferior frontal gyri , whereas placebo users had decreased reactivity in the right amygdala . CONCLUSION COC use in women who previously had experienced emotional side effects result ed in mood deterioration , and COC use was also accompanied by changes in emotional brain reactivity . These findings are of relevance for the underst and ing of how combined oral contraceptives may influence mood .  Placebo-controlled fMRI studies in COC sensitive women could be of relevance for future testing of adverse mood effects in new oral contraceptives OBJECTIVE To evaluate cognitive functioning throughout the menstrual cycle in women who suffer from premenstrual dysphoric disorder ( PDD ) and controls . RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS : Measures of cognitive function will discriminate between women with prospect ively documented PDD and women without PDD during the late-luteal phase of the menstrual cycle . PARTICIPANTS The participants consisted of 37 women who met operationalized , prospect ively documented criteria of premenstrual dysphoric disorder and 32 women without PDD who served as controls . DESIGN A series of neurocognitive tasks were used to assess selective , sustained attention , reaction time , and cognitive flexibility in women with PDD and controls . Tests were administered on two occasions : once during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle , and once during the late-luteal phase . RESULTS Repeated measures and discriminant analyses failed to demonstrate significant group differences between women with PDD and controls in neurocognitive functioning . CONCLUSIONS The findings indicated that cognitive functioning in the late-luteal phase was not compromised in either group , in spite of subjective reports from the PDD group . The findings suggest that complaints of cognitive dysfunction may be mediated by altered perceptions and sociocultural expectations rather than by identifiable cognitive deficits The association between administered estrogen and performance on verbal memory and other cognitive tasks was examined . Male-to-female transsexuals undergoing estrogen treatment for sex reassignment ( n = 29 ) scored higher on Paired Associate Learning ( PAL ) compared to a similar transsexual control group , awaiting estrogen treatment ( n = 30 ) ( P < 0.05 ) . No differences between groups receiving and not receiving estrogen were detected on a control memory task ( Digit Span ) or on other cognitive tasks including Mental Rotations and Controlled Associations . There were no group differences in age . Group differences in mood or in general intellectual ability also did not explain the findings . Results suggest a specific influence of estrogen in men on verbal memory tasks , similar to that seen in prior studies of women . They are discussed in terms of differential processing dem and s of the two memory tasks and possible differences between estrogenic influences on Mental Rotations and Controlled Associations in men versus women Surgical or pharmacological suppression of ovarian hormones leads to declines in verbal memory , and estrogen treatment reverses these deficits . In the current study , we investigated the effects of menstrual cycle phase and oral contraceptives on verbal memory , as measured by the California Verbal Learning Test , in two groups of premenopausal women - 16 naturally cycling women and 20 current users of estrogen-based oral contraceptives ( OCs ) .  Naturally cycling women were assessed twice - once during the early follicular phase ( Days 2 - 4 ) and once during the midluteal phase ( Days 20 - 22 ) of the menstrual cycle . OC users were tested on the same cycle days , corresponding to inactive and active pill phases , respectively . We predicted that naturally cycling women would show improved verbal memory during the midluteal phase , when estradiol levels are high , compared with the follicular phase , when estradiol levels are low . We also predicted that OC users , who show no change in endogenous estradiol across the cycle , would show no change in verbal memory . Contrary to predictions , naturally cycling women showed no changes in verbal memory across the cycle , whereas OC users showed enhanced memory during the active pill phase ( p<.05 ) . None of the secondary cognitive outcome measures varied with cycle phase or OC use including measures of visuospatial memory , verbal fluency , visuospatial abilities , and attention . Overall , these results suggest that verbal memory performance in premenopausal women varies across the cycle with OC use , but does not vary systematic ally with changes in endogenous estradiol Humans share with animals a primitive neural system for processing emotions such as fear and anger . Unlike other animals , humans have the unique ability to control and modulate instinctive emotional reactions through intellectual processes such as reasoning , rationalizing , and labeling our experiences . This study used functional MRI to identify the neural networks underlying this ability . Subjects either matched the affect of one of two faces to that of a simultaneously presented target face ( a perceptual task 
    Output:
    
Globally , low ( early follicular and the entire follicular phase for estrogen and progesterone , respectively ) and high ( COC , CSHT , late follicular and luteal phase for estrogen ; COC , mid- and late-luteal phase for progesterone ) hormonal milieu diversely affected the response of several brain regions including the amygdala , anterior cingulate cortex , and inferior frontal gyrus , but their functional recruitment across groups and domains was scattered .
The constellation of findings provides initial evidence of the influence of sex steroid hormones on cortical and subcortical regions implicated in emotional and cognitive processing .