Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu

This study found that those with physical abuse in childhood (as differing from sexual abuse), had a heightened reaction to sad faces, due to the right amygdala (which broadly, maybe more stimulated in the follicular phase): Childhood Trauma History Differentiates Amygdala Response to Sad Faces within MDD

This study suggests that sexual abuse victims and those with PTSD have a heightened anxiety response to fearful AND neutral faces, through the left amygdala. In female fighters it is possible that Luteal Phase left amygdala stimulation could amplify this: read it here: Amygdala habituation to emotional faces in adolescents with internalizing disorders, adolescents with childhood sexual abuse related PTSD and healthy adolescents

one study: the left amygdalais more closely related to affective information encoding with a higher affinity to language and to detailed feature extraction, and the right amygdala to affective information retrieval with a higher affinity to pictorial or image-related material. Furthermore, the right amygdala may be more strongly engaged than the left one in a fast,shallow or gross analysis of affect-related information. read the study here: Differential_Contribution_of_Right_and_Left_Amygda.pdf They found in 17 normal subjects thatthe evaluation of unpleasant visual stimuli activated(among other regions) the left amygdala. This activa-tion not only held for fear-related, but for a wide rangeof unpleasant stimuli.Studying regional cerebral blood flow changes in re-sponse to the presentation of faces with different emo-tional expressions, has provided a major basis for es-tablishing a differential role of the left and right amyg-dala in cognitive information processing. Interestingresults were obtained in a series of studies by Mor-ris [85, 87, 88]. Morris et al. [85] found enhanced...On the other hand, Mor-ris et al. [87, 88] found a significant neural response inthe right, but not the left, amygdala to masked presen-tations of a conditioned angry face. Combined, thesefindings suggest that unconscious (masked) process-ing is mediated more readily by the right, and con-scious processing more readily by the left amygdala(among other structures).

In some Follicular = left, Luteal = right from wikipedia, the amygdala Hemispheric specializations In one study, electrical stimulations of the right amygdala induced negative emotions, especially fear and sadness. In contrast, stimulation of the left amygdala was able to induce either pleasant (happiness) or unpleasant (fear, anxiety, sadness) emotions.[10] Other evidence suggests that the left amygdala plays a role in the brain's reward system.[11] Each side holds a specific function in how we perceive and process emotion. The right and left portions of the amygdala have independent memory systems, but work together to store, encode, and interpret emotion. The right hemisphere is associated with negative emotion.[12][13] It plays a role in the expression of fear and in the processing of fear-inducing stimuli. Fear conditioning, which occurs when a neutral stimulus acquires aversive properties, occurs within the right hemisphere. When an individual is presented with a conditioned, aversive stimulus, it is processed within the right amygdala, producing an unpleasant or fearful response. This emotional response conditions the individual to avoid fear-inducing stimuli and more importantly, to assess threats in the environment. The right hemisphere is also linked to declarative memory, which consists of facts and information from previously experienced events and must be consciously recalled. It also plays a significant role in the retention of episodic memory. Episodic memory consists of the autobiographical aspects of memory, permitting recall of emotional and sensory experience of an event. This type of memory does not require conscious recall. The right amygdala plays a role in the association of time and places with emotional properties.[14]

We filmed an entire session at Sangtiennoi's gym, just to give an inside look at what training there is like, one of the more "authentic" Muay Thai gyms with a history of training high level westerners as well. [edit in, November 2021 - seeing that I posted this, Sangtiennoi has since sadly passed away. The gym is still open and being run by his wife and his son Moses who have survived him.]

Follicular Phase is linked with more aggression: Anger and Interpersonal Aggression (book)

Early visual processing is enhanced in the midluteal phase of the menstrual cycle

Left amygdala sensitivity to angry, emotional voice: study

The left amygdala is more attuned to fear expressions in others (luteal, perhaps): The left amygdala knows fear: laterality in the amygdala response to fearful eyes

Fear conditioning enhanced during the Luteal phase: Influence of Female Menstrual Cycle on the Acquisition and Extinction of Conditioned Fear

Oxytocin increases amygdala reactivity to threatening scenes in females

pain is processed very differently in the Luteal phase, and is experienced more acutely: Different Brain Activation Patterns to Pain and Pain-related Unpleasantness during the Menstrual Cycle A graphic summarizing some of the above:

Women in the midluteal phase of the menstrual cycle have difficulty suppressing the processing of negative emotional stimuli: An event-related potential study

this study finds a stronger amygdala reaction to fearful faces in the follicular phase

In the Luteal phase the high level of progesterone has been shown to have an analgesic effect: source

A (paywall) study examining the differences in amygdala response in natural and oral contraceptive Luteal phases: Regions of the parietal cortex are thought to be involved fundamentally in spatial processing and the control of action. The follicular and reward sensitivity.

Study cited above, the Anterior cingulate cortex was also heightened in the Luteal phase. This correlates to the emotional experience of physical and social pain (wiki): as well as skews towards errors, and difficulties in self-confidence:

more on the left amygdala and fear conditioning Whether the left or right amygdala is heightened in the Luteal phase is not consistent among women. PMDD women have differing profiles

Note: the study was trying to isolate the mechanistic effects apart from the menstrual cycle (perhaps for birth control application reasons): This study (paywalled) found that it was the left amygdala that was heightened during the Luteal phase: The Left Amygdala has a heightened ability to detected fear in facial expressions: The left amygdala knows fear: laterality in the amygdala response to fearful eyes

Important and interesting in terms of the development as a female fighter, one of the roles of the amygdala is in terms of long term memory consolidation, and fear-conditioning. Events that are fear inducing become encoded in the long term memory as lessons learned. A very obvious application of this prospective idea is that female athletes (fighters) are often put through "toughening up" training, to ostensibly to mimic similar things boys/men go through, and to train-in more "masculine" coded responses. Just very broadly thinking, if the amygdala is stimulated during the Luteal phase, when fear-conditioning sensitivity may be at its highest, this would be the worst time to do this kind of thing. You could be potentially hard-coding negative responses. On the other hand, positive emotional coding of learned behavior during this time, might find itself in long term memory more easily? Though this study suggests that positive rewards have strongest effect during the follicular phase. The emotional component of memory is perhaps enhanced. more on emotional coding in women and the left amygdala:

I've only speed read a pretty densely worded study summation, so I'm dropping this here for a re-read, and for others who might find this interesting. Looking into the emotional and mood dynamics surrounding elevated progesterone - not only naturally occurring, but also supplementally so - it appears that the sensitivity of the amygdala is a real possible factor. As the article suggests, these are very complex mechanisms, and you can't just say that "fear goes up" (for instance it also suggests that the ability to also reassess fear responses, and have control over them, also goes up), but this does possibly coincide with experiences Sylvie has reported in her sparring and training in general. There are times that she will have fear responses that are not cognitively fear driven, as if her body is just responding fearfully, almost independent of her thoughts and conscious beliefs. Or, experiences of physical touch sensitivity, almost a nerveyness, a rawness, not wanting to be touched, but still having to spar. We haven't correlated this to the luteal phase, having just begun looking into this, but...this could be a pretty huge and seldom discussed dimension of emotional shifts of female fighters in training and fighting. You may have one emotional spectrum and sensitivity at Day 8, in the Follicular phase, and a completely different one at Day 20 in the Luteal phase. Some set of events or circumstances at Day 8 may produce one set of mental and physical responses, and quite another at Day 20. And, if you are fighting at a progesterone peak period, knowing that your amygdala and related systems could be heightened, is probably a really important framework to be thinking about, in terms of performance, catch-safes, anticipation, recovery and self-forgiveness (if overcome at times). And, this could also have some bearing on progesterone birth control methods and how they might effect your emotional spectrum, the ability to overcome fear conditions, etc. It's not something as plain and simple as a fighter's concern: Fear goes up during the Luteal phase, as also it is suggested that alertness might go up as well, which may aid in fighting, but if one could have a differing set of criteria of self-judgement, based on where in the cycle one is, and even two (or more) sets of criteria, and skill requirements, for differing areas of the cycle, that may be of real importance. We tend to judge ourselves on a very flat, inflexible scale of perfection. [edit: reading further down in this thread, the amygdala has right and left hemispheres which play different roles. Differing hemispheres in the menstrual cycle are heightened in women, generally it is the left hemisphere which is heightened during the Luteal phase, but not always so] In any case, worth thinking about and reading more into. Progesterone selectively increases amygdala reactivity in women https://www.nature.com/articles/4002030 Edit in: A graphic of the main notes taken from the studies in the thread. It's important to note that these are narrow studies, and women can have the columns or rows reversed, individually based on history or individually. More important maybe is tracking your own pattern. These are just aspects that are hormonally in play.

In posting a new photo in the Noir aesthetic, a portrait of the legend Wangchannoi, it struck me something that should have been obvious, but for some reason I never caught. There is a very real - sociological, identity laden - way in which Muay Thai fighters are aligned with the image of the Gangster. I think unconsciously using cinematic tropes that encapsulate the picture of the American Gangster, Film Noir, somehow work to braid western and Thai conceptions of manliness. In fact, this photo has some of this. Wangchannoi in particular was known for his savage, violent, but ultra cool fighting style. Seeing him here, later in life, in a Noir light, somehow embodies that in a very curious and emotive way: If you want to read more on the connection between the Nak Muay (Muay Thai fighter) and the Nakleng (gangster) in Thai culture, this article and essay is indispensable: Thai Masculinity: Positioning Nak Muay Between Monkhood and Nak Leng – Peter Vail

This "to catch a kick" idea is just a ridiculous thing. I think Kenshin promulgated it? I can't recall. First of all you do NOT want to catch kicks in Thailand, you want to check them. When you catch a kick you have lost a point. You have been scored upon. At general best you can get the point back, but you've given up a point. Yeah, there can be a sweep or whatnot, but the idea that Thais are somehow adopting really terrible punching techniques in order to catch kicks easier is flatly ridiculous. Honestly, it's just habitual poor technique that has somehow become widespread in Thailand that people are making up reasons for. Yes, Thailand has the best fighters in the world, but training protocols and knowledge of optimal technique is constantly shifting, and sometimes in certain lines of gyms it actually devolves.

Here is Sylvie using a wall to build that straight ahead, in the frame feeling. Not only on straights and cross, but elbows and hooks: