An American study shows that women have a younger metabolic brain age than men. This would explain why women perform better on cognitive tests after age 70.
We knew that gray matter evolves and change throughout life. But a study led by researchers at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of St. Louis (USA) shows that from early adulthood until old age, the metabolic age of the brain is higher. young in women than in men. More precisely, at the same age, the brain of women is 4 years younger than that of men.
A brain 4 years younger
For this study, US researchers used a technique for analyzing the brain, called positron emission tomography, to measure the flow of oxygen and glucose in the brains of 121 women and 84 men aged 20 to 82. The scientists then used a computer algorithm to predict the ages of people based on their brain metabolism.
If this program allowed them to accurately estimate the age of men, women’s brains were on average 3.8 years younger than their actual age. A difference which is likely to be due to the way the human brain metabolizes glucose, in other words “burns its fuel”.
For Dr. Marcus Raichle, neurobiologist and lead author of the study, this could explain why women over 70 mostly have better results on cognitive tests only men.
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