Progesterone mediates brain functional connectivity changes during the menstrual cycle-a pilot resting state MRI study.

The growing interest in intrinsic brain organization has sparked various innovative approaches to generating comprehensive connectivity-based maps of the human brain. Prior reports point to a sexual dimorphism of the structural and functional human connectome. However, it is uncertain whether subtle changes in sex hormones, as occur during the monthly menstrual cycle, substantially impact the functional architecture of the female brain.

Greater monoamine oxidase a binding in perimenopausal age as measured with carbon 11-labeled harmine positron emission tomography.

Importance: Perimenopause is a period of high risk for mood disorders, and it has been proposed that perimenopause is also a window of risk for processes linked to later dementia. However, in human perimenopause, the neurobiological changes implicated in the genesis of mood disorders or dementia have not been identified. Monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) is an important brain enzyme that creates oxidative stress, influences apoptosis, and metabolizes monoamines.

Clumping distractors around the target facilitates performance on the visual search task in the elderly.

Fifteen elderly participants and 15 young controls were tested on a version of the visual search task to determine if stimulus location had an effect on reaction time (RT). Location was manipulated by presenting the distractors clumped around a target or spread apart on the screen. Elderly participants performed worse overall.