Reports from Albert Einstein College of Medicine Advance Knowledge in Alzheimer Disease (Female advantage in verbal memory Evidence of sex-specific…

Mental Health Weekly Digest

Reports from Albert Einstein College of Medicine Advance Knowledge in Alzheimer Disease (Female advantage in verbal memory Evidence of sex-specific cognitive reserve)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Mental Health Weekly Digest -- Researchers detail new data in Neurodegenerative Diseases and Conditions - Alzheimer Disease. According to news reporting originating in Bronx, New York, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, "We investigated sex differences in verbal memory across different levels of neural dysfunction, measured by temporal lobe glucose metabolic rates (TLGluMR). Three hundred ninety controls and 672 participants with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and 254 with Alzheimer disease (AD) dementia from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative completed the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and [F-18]-fluorodeoxyglucose-PET."

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, "Cross-sectional analyses were conducted using linear regression to examine the sex by TLGluMR interaction on RAVLT performance in the overall sample and within diagnostic groups adjusting for age, education, and APOE epsilon 4 genotype. Across groups, female sex and higher TLGluMR and their interaction were associated with better verbal memory (p values <= 0.005). The female advantage in verbal memory varied by TLGluMR such that the advantage was greatest among individuals with moderate to high TLGluMR and minimal or absent among individuals with lower TLGluMR. Diagnosis-stratified analyses revealed that this interaction was driven by the aMCI group (p values = 0.009). The interaction was not significant in control and AD dementia groups. Women show better verbal memory than men in aMCI despite similar levels of brain hypometabolism. The lifelong advantage that females show over males in verbal memory might represent a form of cognitive reserve that delays verbal memory decline until more advanced pathology, as indexed by TLGluMR."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "This issue is clinically important because verbal memory scores are used in diagnosing aMCI and AD dementia."

For more information on this research see: Female advantage in verbal memory Evidence of sex-specific cognitive reserve. Neurology, 2016;87(18):1916-1924. Neurology can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA. (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins - www.lww.com; Neurology - neurology.org)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting E.E. Sundermann, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dept. of Neurol, Bronx, NY 10467, United States. Additional authors for this research include P.M. Maki, L.H. Rubin, R.B. Lipton, S. Landau and A. Biegon (see also Neurodegenerative Diseases and Conditions - Alzheimer Disease).

Keywords for this news article include: Bronx, New York, United States, North and Central America, Central Nervous System Diseases and Conditions, Neurodegenerative Diseases and Conditions, Brain Diseases and Conditions, Alzheimer Disease, Tauopathies, Dementia, Albert Einstein College of Medicine.