Gender-related Differences in Visuospatial Memory Persist in Alzheimer's Disease

Millet, Xavier; Raoux, Nadine; Carret, Nicolas Le; Bouisson, Jean; Dartigues, Jean‐François; Amieva, Hélène

doi:10.1093/arclin/acp086

Cited by 20 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…For example, Weiss et al 24 found that, in patients with a range of psychiatric disorders, males outperformed females on tests assessing visuospatial ability while females performed better on tasks involving verbal acuity. This difference in affected cognitive domain was maintained across disease type 23,25 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Sex specific cognitive differences in Parkinson disease

Reekes

Higginson

Ledbetter

et al. 2020

npj Parkinsons Dis.

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Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is 1.5 times more common in males than in females. While motor progression tends to be more aggressive in males, little is known about sex difference in cognitive progression. We tested the hypothesis that there are sex differences in cognitive dysfunction in non-demented PD. We evaluated 84 participants (38 females) with PD and 59 controls (27 females) for demographic variables and cognitive function, including attention, working memory, executive function, and processing speed. Multivariate ANOVA revealed no significant differences between groups for demographic variables, including age, years of education, global cogntition, daytime sleepiness, predicted premorbid IQ, UPDRS score, PD phenotype, or disease duration. For cognitive variables, we found poorer performance in males versus females with PD for measures of executive function and processing speed, but no difference between male and female controls. Specifically, PD males showed greater deficits in Verbal Fluency (category fluency, category switching, and category switching accuracy), Color Word Interference (inhibition), and speed of processing (SDMT). There were no differences in measures of working memory or attention across sex and inconsistent findings for switching. Our data indicate that males with PD have significantly greater executive and processing speed impairments compared to females despite no differences in demographic variables or other measures of disease severity. Our findings are consistent with the steeper slope of disease progression reported in males with PD.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Sex specific cognitive differences in Parkinson disease

Reekes

Higginson

Ledbetter

et al. 2020

npj Parkinsons Dis.

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“…Previous research suggests sex differences on tasks of visuospatial memory may be found when active rather than passive visuospatial manipulation is required (Lewin, Wolgers, & Herlitz, 2001; Millet et al, 2009). Since the BVMT-R essentially requires no visuospatial manipulation and the stimuli can be somewhat easily verbalized, this may explain the female advantage in our control group.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Greater memory impairment in dementing females than males relative to sex-matched healthy controls

Gale

Baxter

Thompson

2016

Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology

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Previously we demonstrated sex differences in episodic memory in healthy elderly and suggested that normative data be separated by sex. The present study extended the exploration of sex differences on memory measures into two clinical populations, Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Seventy-six subjects with MCI and 101 subjects with AD diagnosed by a multidisciplinary team were included. These two groups were also compared to a group of 177 healthy elderly control participants. Sex differences on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) (total and delayed recall) raw scores and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R) were demonstrated within the healthy but not MCI or AD groups. Calculating Z-scores by sex for both dementing groups based on the healthy controls suggested a larger performance gap between healthy and dementing women as compared to healthy and dementing men. MCI females were on average 0.48 standard deviations lower for total verbal learning compared to healthy female controls than were MCI males when compared to healthy male controls. For verbal delayed recall the gap was even larger, 1.09 standard deviations. Similarly, on the BVMT-R, a measure of visual memory, the difference was 0.60 standard deviations for total visual learning and 0.99 standard deviations for delayed recall. This same sex difference, with females showing greater impairment compared to the controls group than did the males, was also present within the AD group. The greater memory impairment in dementing females rather than males when compared to sex matched healthy controls was unlikely to be due to more severe illness since females performed equivalently to males on the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale, Mini-mental Status Examination, Dementia Rating Scale, and were also similar for age, education, and apolipoprotein status. The present study suggested relatively greater memory impairment in females with MCI or AD compared to controls.

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“…Since tests of working memory can predict the time course and severity of AD in humans, we examined age-related changes in working memory in the 3xTg mice, and because there are sex differences in visuo-spatial working memory tasks, in which men perform better than women, whether or not they have AD [27], we tested both male and female mice at each age. To date, only one study has examined working and reference memory of 3xTg-AD mice.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%