At the University of Oslo, Anne Ravdal has researched gender differences in brain aging, the results of which have been published in PNAS. As noted in the study, different losses of gray matter and white matter are observed depending on gender. Although the hippocampus, the area of the brain linked to Alzheimer’s disease, also shows different types of deterioration depending on gender, this finding opens up a new avenue of research in neuroscience and biological characteristics. Read on to learn more.
New evidences: differences between male and female brains
Recent evidence has found that male brains really may shrink faster than female brains with age. Between 4,726 participants with healthy cognition, brain scans have showed “modest yet systematic sex differences” in the way neurological tissue wastes away. In addition, the human brain naturally shrinks as we get older, and those who die with Alzheimer’s disease have brains that show drastic volume losses.
It must be underlined that women that are are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at twice the rate of men, but surprisingly not that famous about how a person’s sex impacts their brain volume as they age. And as it reveals, the female brain may truly lose gray and white matter at a slower rate than the male brain.
“If women’s brains declined more, that could have helped explain their higher Alzheimer’s prevalence,” co-author Anne Ravndal, a neuroscientist at the University of Oslo in Norway, told Nature journalist Rachel Fieldhous.
Ravndal and an international team of investigators pulled together more than 12,000 brain scans, all from several years and participants aged 17 to 95. Every single individual had at least two brain MRIs, with an average interval of about 3 years among them.
More over, after following for sex-based dismilarities in brain size, the team got that men showed a decrease in a greater quantity of brain areas, including many parts of the cortex, in older age. In the meantime, women showed a decrease in fewer regions, and the thickness of their cortex was less altered with age.
What the finding suggests
The achievements proposes that there are true sex differences in the biology of aging, but the results should be taken with caution, the authors note, as far more investigation is required. Spite of more investigation into the biology of the aging brain, there is still an extreme sex bias in the area. In 2019, only 5 percent of published investigations in neuroscience or psychiatry considered the influence of sex.
Inconsistent findings abound. Today, it remains unclear whether men and women differ in the extent or speed of brain decline. Some studies show steeper declines in gray and white matter among men, while others show steeper decreases among women.
The recent research, led by researchers at the University of Oslo in Norway, sought to clear up the image. Among the sexes, investigatos found sex-based disimilarities in total brain volume, subcortical brain volume, cortical thickness, and surface area, among dozens of other measurements.
What these losses mean for cognitive function implies further investigations. Scientists are only just now understanding the way brain formis is connected to disease, and some studies proposes that shrinkage can sometimes be helpful.
Clues related to volume’s location
The location of volume loss is able to give relevant clues. With no doubt, Ravndal and colleagues found no difference in volume modifications to the hippocampus – a neural hub for memory and learning closely involved in dementia.
Just in older age did women in the investigation start to demonstrate a quicker decrease in the hippocampus, once their relative life expectancy was taken into account. However, this may easily be a delay in aging: a product of women living longer than men and not necessarily a sign that explains their dementia risk.
