IIT-Bombay study finds PCOS may cause attention issues in women

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome PCOS an endocrine disorder in women may have an effect on focused and divided attention according to a study by researchers at Indian Institute of Technology IIT BombayThe study published in the openaccess journal BioPsychoSocial Medicine focuses on the impact of PCOS on attention which forms the precursor for cognitive processing While focused attention is essential for focusing on relevant information and filtering out irrelevant stimuli divided attention helps handle and respond to multiple tasks simultaneouslyPCOS presents symptoms like irregular or absent period polycystic ovaries and increased levels of male hormone androgen While the physical impact of the condition is known its mental effects are comparatively less exploredThrough two taskbased tests Prof Azizuddin Khan and Maitreyi Redkar from Psychophysiology Laboratory Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Bombay coauthors of the study found that women with PCOS were slower to react and more easily distracted than those without PCOSTwo groups of participants 101 women with PCOS and 72 women without PCOS undertook the tests Women with PCOS showed over a 50 per cent slower response and made about 10 per cent more errors than the ones without PCOS in the focused attention test In the divided attention task women with PCOS performed about 20 per cent slowly with 3 per cent extra errors as compared to the ones without PCOS The researchers used two taskbased tests the Flanker Task and the Posner Cueing Task to test individuals with and without PCOS for accuracy and response time speed The Flanker Task assesses the participantrsquos ability to avoid distracting stimuli while focusing only on important information On the other hand the Posner Cueing task assesses divided attention based on how quickly the participants focus on the correct spot and how efficiently they shift their focus from the wrong oneProf Khan who led the study explains ldquoThe cognitive experiments are specifically designed to capture the subtle millisecondlevel differences in how individuals respond to critical stimuli These minute delays reveal significant impairments in attention which may impact our reallife functioning In the specific context of focused attention it is not just about concentrating on the task at hand to respond at the right time but also inhibiting irrelevant distractorsrdquoThe study reveals that hormonal imbalance associated with PCOS could lead to decreased alertness and longer reaction times Along with elevated androgen levels the participants with PCOS had insulin resistance that is linked to attention Insulin resistance causes poor glucose metabolism and affects brain cell neuron activity leading to poor performance in focused attention tasks Mental fatigue linked to PCOS such as anxiety and frustration makes divided attention tasks more challengingThe findings highlight that decreased accuracy in divided attention tasks may influence working memory which hinders holding information temporarily This makes daily activities such as keeping track of directions while driving or remembering a phone number more challengingPlaying brain games focusing on attention and memory can improve response time speed and accuracy Relaxation and stress reduction techniques may reduce stress and anxiety and improve focus and speed according to researchersldquoIncreasing physical activity levels maintaining a nutritious diet and reducing weight are beneficial not just for PCOS symptoms but also for cognitive health Even improving sleep hygiene contributes significantly to improving attentional accuracy and reaction timerdquo Prof Khan suggestsatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params