The influence of steroid sex hormones on the cognitive and emotional processing of visual stimuli in humans

•Steroid sex hormones are responsible for many differences between men and women.•I review indirect and direct evidence for effects of sex hormones on visual processing.•I highlight three areas of interest: preferences, emotion, and other visual processing abilities.•Overall, studies demonstrate that sex steroids are associated with visual processing.•However, findings are sometimes inconsistent and differences in methodology make comparisons difficult.

Steroid sex hormones are responsible for some of the differences between men and women. In this article, I review evidence that steroid sex hormones impact on visual processing. Given prominent sex-differences, I focus on three topics for sex hormone effects for which there is most research available: 1. Preference and mate choice, 2. Emotion and recognition, and 3. Cerebral/perceptual asymmetries and visual–spatial abilities. For each topic, researchers have examined sex hormones and visual processing using various methods. I review indirect evidence addressing variation according to: menstrual cycle phase, pregnancy, puberty, and menopause. I further address studies of variation in testosterone and a measure of prenatal testosterone, 2D:4D, on visual processing. The most conclusive evidence, however, comes from experiments. Studies in which hormones are administrated are discussed. Overall, many studies demonstrate that sex steroids are associated with visual processing. However, findings are sometimes inconsistent, differences in methodology make strong comparisons between studies difficult, and we generally know more about activational than organizational effects.