Hormonal contraception & face processing: examining face gender, androgenicity & treatment duration

Previous cross-sectional studies observed differences between users and non-users of combined oral contraceptives (COCs) in both the structure and function of the fusiform face area (FFA) related to face processing. For the present study 120 female participants performed high-resolution structural, as well as functional scans at rest, during face encoding and face recognition. Participants were either never-users of COCs (26), current first-time users of androgenic (29) or anti-androgenic COCs (23) or previous users of androgenic (21) or anti-androgenic COCs (21). Results suggest that associations between COC-use and face processing are modulated by androgenicity, but do not persist beyond the duration of COC use. The majority of findings concern the connectivity of the left FFA to the left supramarginal gyrus (SMG), which is a key region in cognitive empathy. While connectivity in anti-androgenic COC users differs from never users irrespective of the duration of COC use already at rest, connectivity in androgenic COC users decreases with longer duration of use during face recognition. Furthermore, longer duration of androgenic COC use was related to reduced identification accuracy, as well as increased connectivity of the left FFA to the right orbitofrontal cortex. Accordingly, the FFA and SMG emerge as promising ROIs for future randomized controlled trials on the effects of COC use on face processing.