A female advantage in cognitive recovery from early cerebral insult.

Abstract

Baptist Memorial HospitalGender differences in cognitive outcome were examined in children born prematurely who had incurred early cerebral lesions and in a high-risk comparison group. The boys and girls, who had suffered perinatal intracranial hemorrhage-the most common neurological insult in the preterm infant-were similar in their antenatal, perinatal, and postnatal course, as well as in their sociofamilial attributes. After statistical adjustment to account for the extent of the insult, a significant gender difference in cognitive recovery was observed in the lesion group. Girls outperformed boys by about half a standard deviation on standardized intelligence tests. No gender differences were observed in the comparison group. The implications of the results for theories and empirical findings on gender differences in vulnerability to deviation from normal development are discussed.Issues of gender differences in intellectual performance and social behavior have remained in the focus of contemporary psychological research in the last decade. Gender differences have been described in cognitive styles and temperament

Parent ratings of child cognition and language compared with Bayley-III in preterm 3-year-olds

“…Similar to other studies of preterm children across a wide spectrum of gestational age (24,25) , we identified that boys display poorer cognitive development in our sample of late pre-term infants. Exposure to socio-demographic risk factors showed a particularly strong association with Bayley-III cognitive scores.…”

Effects of age, experience and inter-alpha inhibitor proteins on working memory and neuronal plasticity after neonatal hypoxia-ischemia

“…On post-natal day 1 (P1), pups were separated into litters of eight males and two females to control for sex ratio and litter size. This study was limited to the assessment of male subjects due to prior research showing that rodent males exhibit more prominent deficits following neonatal HI brain injury as compared to females [45,46], findings that parallel observations in humans [12,47-53]. Subsets of subjects were randomly assigned to receive either hypoxic-ischemic (HI) insult or Sham surgical procedure on P7.…”

Childhood MS and ADEM: Investigation and Comparison of Neurocognitive Features in Children

“…Possible gender differences in cognitive outcome following ADEM or childhood MS remain largely unknown. Cognitive recovery and outcome in other childhood brain disorders such as pediatric TBI (Donders & Hoffman, 2002), early cerebral insult (Raz et al, 1995), and premature infants (Aylward, 2002), suggest a possible female advantage.…”