Research Proves That Women Turn Smarter When Ovulating

Women are at their smartest self when they are ovulating, according to a study.

A new study has it that women are at their smartest self when ovulating.

The study, led by Belinda Pletzer at the University of Salzburg, Austria, claimed that the size of a woman's brain changes throughout her menstrual cycle, with some areas growing by as much as 2 per cent in the run-up to ovulation- when women are at their most fertile.

Ovulation - Calendar Symptoms Signs Pain Pregnancy Contraception FAQs
Ovulation is the time when an egg or ovum is released by female ovary, usually midway during the menstrual cycle. The ovulation calendar helps to calculate the time of ovulation.

The researchers took MRI scans of the brains of women during their monthly cycles.

In women not taking the pill, they found an increase in the volume of grey matter in the right parahippocampal and fusiform gyri, areas of the brain involved in spatial location and facial recognition.

This boosts women's abilities to recognise faces, bodies and landscapes, said Pletzer.

In fact, she said that this may help them to locate a high-quality mating partner.

The team found that the effect is short-lived, however. After ovulation, rising levels of progesterone cause the gyri to shrink back.

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Quiz on Ovulation
Ovulation is a natural phenomenon that forms part of the female reproductive cycle. Hence, problems with ovulating not only make conception difficult, but also cause unneeded physical and psychological difficulties to women. To understand how ovulation works, signs of ovulation, and the basis of an ovulation calendar, take our quiz.

The team also found that women on the pill had a bigger hippocampus and cerebellum, associated with memory and movement, compared to controls.

"The pill may exaggerate typical female behaviours such as superior language skills and memory," New Scientist quoted Pletzer as saying.