The comparison of facial emotion recognition ability in women with and without premenstrual syndrome

Abstract

Objective: It is emphasized that premenstrual syndrome (PMS) includes affective symptoms, such as depressed mood, anxiety, and irritability, all of which may influence the recognition of facial emotion expressions. Also it is known that menstrual cycling may effect facial emotion recognition in healthy females. In the present study, we aimed to investigate how menstrual cycling effects of facial emotion recognition in women with and without PMS. Methods: Sixty healthy women were included to the study. They were divided two grou+ps labeled women with PMS (n=33) and without PMS (n=27), which is in accordance with the Premenstrual Assessment Form. Then, The Facial Emotion Recognition Test (56 mixed photos with happy, surprised, fearful, sad, angry, disgusted, and neutral facial expressions from Ekman & Friesen's series) was performed on each group in both the luteal and follicular phases. Results: The women with PMS were significantly worse in recognizing sad (p=0.003) and surprised (p=0.019) faces in the luteal phase compared to the follicular phase, whereas women without PMS were significantly worse in recognizing sad faces (p=0.008) in the luteal phase compared to the follicular phase. There were no significant differences between women with and without PMS in either the luteal phases or in the follicular phases according to facial emotion recognition (for each, p > 0.05). Conclusion: The women with PMS do not differ from women without PMS in recognizing facial emotions accurately. The low accuracy rate in the recognition of sad and surprised facial emotions in the luteal phase may lead PMS women to have more social problems.