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Women鈥檚 Better Verbal Memory Skills May Mask Early Signs of Alzheimer鈥檚
MINNEAPOLIS -
Women may have better verbal memory skills than men even when their brains show the same level of problems metabolizing glucose, which occurs in people with Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, according to research published in the October 5, 2016, online issue of , the medical journal of the 好色先生. 鈥淲omen perform better than men on tests of verbal memory throughout life, which may give them a buffer of protection against losing their verbal memory skills in the precursor stages of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, known as mild cognitive impairment,鈥 said study author Erin E. Sundermann, PhD, of the University of California, San Diego, who conducted the research while at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY. 鈥淭his is especially important because verbal memory tests are used to diagnose people with Alzheimer鈥檚 disease and mild cognitive impairment, so women may not be diagnosed until they are further along in the disease.鈥 The study included people from the Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease Neuroimaging Initiative: 254 people with Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, 672 people with mild cognitive impairment that included memory problems and 390 people with no thinking or memory problems. Participants鈥 verbal memory skills were tested and PET brain scans measured how well their brains metabolized glucose, which is the primary energy source for the brain. Poor metabolism is a sign of dysfunction in brain cells. The memory test asked participants to remember a list of 15 words read to them, both right away and 30 minutes later. Women scored better than men on the memory tests when they had no, mild or moderate problems with brain metabolism. Once the participants had more advanced metabolism problems, there was no difference in test scores between women and men. 鈥淭hese results suggest that women are better able to compensate for underlying changes in the brain with their 鈥榗ognitive reserve鈥 until the disease reaches a more advanced stage,鈥 Sundermann said. The immediate recall test has a maximum score of 75; memory is considered impaired when scores are less than 37. The study looked at a rate of glucose metabolism in the temporal lobe (brain area responsible for memory function) relative to glucose metabolism in the pons/cerebellum (brain area where metabolism remains stable with increasing age and pathology). This temporal lobe glucose metabolism rate ranges from one to four, with lower scores indicating more dysfunction in brain cells. In the study, women reached the impaired scores at a lower metabolism rate than men, or a temporal lobe glucose metabolism rate of 2.2 compared to 2.6. The delayed recall test has a maximum score of 15 and scores of less than eight are considered impaired. Women in the study had impaired scores at a glucose metabolism rate of 2.9 compared to 3.7 for men. 鈥淚f these results are confirmed, adjusting memory tests to account for the differences between men and women may help diagnose Alzheimer鈥檚 disease earlier in women,鈥 Sundermann said. Sundermann said limitations of the study include that it was a snapshot in time, with one set of tests and images that do not show changes over time, and that most of the participants were white and well educated, so the results may not be relevant to the overall population. The Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease Neuroimaging Initiative was supported by the National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Alzheimer鈥檚 Association, Alzheimer鈥檚 Drug Discovery Foundation, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Abbott, Amorfix Life Sciences, AstraZeneca, Bayer HealthCare, BioClinica, Biogen Idec, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eisai, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, F. Hoffmann-La Roche and Genentech, GE Healthcare, Innogenetics, IXICO, Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy Research and Development, Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development, Medpace, Merck, Meso Scale Diagnostics, Novartis Pharmaceuticals; Pfizer, Servier, Synarc and Takeda Pharmaceutical. To learn more about Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, visit .