New research may question what we thought we knew brain aging.
Scientists have discovered that men’s brains shrink faster than women’s as they age, even though women’s brains develop more easily. alzheimer’s disease.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzed more than 12,000 brain scans from about 5,000 healthy people between the ages of 17 and 95. Each participant had at least two MRI scans taken over an extended period of time, allowing scientists to measure how their brains changed as they aged.
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Anne Ravndal, a researcher at the University of Oslo in Norway, said her team wanted to test whether it was higher. Alzheimer’s disease rates in women This may be related to gender differences in the brain.
“Because women are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease more often than men, and aging is the main risk factor, we wanted to test whether men’s and women’s brains change differently with age,” she told FOX News Digital.
Men had a faster rate of brain shrinkage in many regions than women. The study found that areas associated with memory, emotion, and sensory processing were particularly affected, including the hippocampus and parahippocampal regions.
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In contrast, the women’s brains appeared to maintain their size in more areas, although there was slight enlargement in the brain’s fluid-filled spaces known as the ventricles.
“Our findings show that men experience greater structural brain decline in more areas, meaning that normal brain aging cannot explain gender differences between men and women.” Alzheimer’s disease incidence”Ravndal said.
Because women are still diagnosed with the disease almost twice as often, the researchers concluded that changes in brain size alone cannot explain the difference.
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“The results instead point to other possible explanations, including differences in lifespan, diagnostic patterns, and biological factors,” Ravndal said.
For example, women tend to: live longthe period during which Alzheimer’s disease can develop increases. Experts say changes in estrogen during menopause can also affect how brain cells age.
Some researchers point out that women may be diagnosed more often simply because they are more likely to seek… medical aid When memory loss appears.
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Ravndal acknowledged that one of the study’s limitations was that it only looked at healthy people, rather than people who were already showing signs of dementia. Participants were generally well-educated and came from multiple research sites.
Ravndal emphasized that this work is not meant to coach individuals. health decisions.
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“This study does not provide direct recommendations for individuals, but rather helps further scientific understanding by showing that normal brain aging is not responsible for women’s higher rates of Alzheimer’s disease,” she said.
The researchers added: “Future studies will need to identify the mechanism.”
