Sex Differences in Episodic Memory Variance

Asperholm, Martin; Leuven, Livia van; Herlitz, Agneta

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00613

Cited by 19 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…These behavioural findings counter some prior work indicating women and men differ on episodic memory (Astur, Purton, Zaniewski, Cimadevilla, & Markus, 2016;Bremner et al, 2001;Keightley, Winocur, Burianova, Hongwanishkul, & Grady, 2006;Ragland, Coleman, Gur, Glahn, & Gur, 2000). However, closer examination of studies revealing sex differences in episodic memory demonstrate considerable range of outcomes even within-sex, with small to medium effect sizes across the studies (Asperholm, Van Leuven, & Herlitz, 2020;Herlitz & Rehnman, 2008). Thus, straying away from average-based group analyses and towards understanding individual differences may be a more fruitful approach that appropriately considers the range of diversity observed within-and betweensexes.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 74%

“…Women typically perform better than men on episodic memory tasks of verbal stimuli (Gur & Gur, 2002; Herlitz, Nilsson, & Bäckman, 1997; Ragland, Coleman, Gur, Glahn, & Gur, 2000), whereas men tend perform better than women on visuospatial memory tasks (De Frias, Nilsson, & Herlitz, 2006; Weiss, Kemmler, Deisenhammer, Fleischhacker, & Delazer, 2003). However, these sex differences have small to medium effect sizes and are stable across the adult lifespan (Asperholm, Van Leuven, & Herlitz, 2020; De Frias et al, 2006; Jack et al, 2015; Voyer, Postma, Brake, & Imperato-McGinley, 2007). This may account for the few studies investigating sex differences in age effects on memory and associated brain activity and connectivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Age- and episodic memory-related differences in task-based functional connectivity in women and men

Subramaniapillai

Rajagopal

Ankudowich

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Healthy aging is associated with episodic memory decline. However, little is known about sex differences in the effect of normative aging on memory-related brain network dynamics. Here, we used a data-driven multivariate partial least squares (PLS) connectivity analysis to identify similarities and differences in the effect of biological sex on age- and memory-related differences in task-based fMRI connectivity during encoding and retrieval of face-location associations (spatial context memory). Aging was associated with episodic memory decline in both sexes, but there were no significant sex or sex-by-age interactions in memory performance. The connectivity results show that men exhibited greater between-network connectivity with advanced age, which was detrimental to memory performance. Women exhibited reduced connectivity between visual and higher order cognitive networks with advanced age, which was detrimental to memory performance. Therefore, there are sex differences in the effect of age on episodic memory-related connectivity.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 74%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age- and episodic memory-related differences in task-based functional connectivity in women and men

Subramaniapillai

Rajagopal

Ankudowich

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…This corroborates large-scale studies showing sex differences in the memory domain, with women overall performing better on verbal memory tests, while men tend to perform better on spatial memory tasks [ 89 ]. However, as in our study sample, it should be noted that sex differences in cognitive functions are typically very small yet significant in large samples, while the variability in performance within each sex is overall substantially larger than the differences between the two sexes [ 90 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regression-Based Normative Data for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Its Memory Index Score (MoCA-MIS) for Individuals Aged 18–91

Kessels

Vent

Bruijnen

et al. 2022

JCM

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(1) Background: There is a need for a brief assessment of cognitive function, both in patient care and scientific research, for which the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a psychometrically reliable and valid tool. However, fine-grained normative data allowing for adjustment for age, education, and/or sex are lacking, especially for its Memory Index Score (MIS). (2) Methods: A total of 820 healthy individuals aged 18–91 (366 men) completed the Dutch MoCA (version 7.1), of whom 182 also completed the cued recall and recognition memory subtests enabling calculation of the MIS. Regression-based normative data were computed for the MoCA Total Score and MIS, following the data-handling procedure of the Advanced Neuropsychological Diagnostics Infrastructure (ANDI). (3) Results: Age, education level, and sex were significant predictors of the MoCA Total Score (Conditional R2 = 0.4, Marginal R2 = 0.12, restricted maximum likelihood (REML) criterion at convergence: 3470.1) and MIS (Marginal R2 = 0.14, REML criterion at convergence: 682.8). Percentile distributions are presented that allow for age, education and sex adjustment for the MoCA Total Score and the MIS. (4) Conclusions: We present normative data covering the full adult life span that can be used for the screening for overall cognitive deficits and memory impairment, not only in older people with or people at risk of neurodegenerative disease, but also in younger individuals with acquired brain injury, neurological disease, or non-neurological medical conditions.

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“…Notably, most studies that observed null gender effects on item recognition memory also involved larger, more diverse community samples (e.g., Gomez et al, 2020; Naveh-Benjamin et al, 2012; Spalek et al, 2015), whereas studies that have reported significant gender effects primarily involve small samples of undergraduate students (e.g., Cahill & van Stegeren, 2003; Canli et al, 2002). Recent reviews and meta-analyses suggest that women and men tend to be more alike than different across a range of neurocognitive domains (e.g., Asperholm et al, 2020; Hirnstein et al, 2019), and that the small differences observed in memory, when they do occur, may arise from differences in socialization and cultural expectations of men and women rather than innate or biological causes (e.g., caregivers talk about emotions more frequently with girls than with boys; Raval & Walker, 2019). The current findings follow this pattern of results, suggesting that men and women may also be more similar than different in the way they encode and recognize negative and social information.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Episodic memory through a social and emotional lens.

Stewardson¹,

Hunsche²,

Wardell³

et al. 2023

Emotion

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Negative emotion enhances item memory but may reduce associative memory. Social information may also enhance memory, yet how social and emotional cues combine to affect memory for focal and surrounding details is unknown. Gender differences may also exist, but whether women and men encode and remember negative and social information differently is unclear. This study examines how social information contributes to or interacts with emotion to influence item and associative memory, and whether gender plays a role in how social and/or emotional information is recognized. Discovery and replication samples (N = 706) were recruited. Stimuli included (1) images with varying social and emotional content categorized into four conditions: negative social, negative nonsocial, neutral social, neutral nonsocial and (2) neutral images of objects paired with target stimuli to assess associative memory. Participants viewed the image pairings (Encoding). Twenty-four hours later, item and associative recognition memory were tested. Item recognition memory was better for negative vs. neutral and social vs. nonsocial images. By contrast, associative recognition memory was worse for negative vs. neutral, but better for social vs. nonsocial images. Finally, women demonstrated similar item memory performance compared to men but better associative recognition memory performance overall compared to men. Emotional and social cues impart distinct effects on how we form holistic episodic memories, highlighting the importance of considering these critical factors when striving to understand how and what we remember.

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Sex Differences in Episodic Memory Variance

Cited by 19 publications

References 34 publications

Age- and episodic memory-related differences in task-based functional connectivity in women and men

Age- and episodic memory-related differences in task-based functional connectivity in women and men

Regression-Based Normative Data for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Its Memory Index Score (MoCA-MIS) for Individuals Aged 18–91

Episodic memory through a social and emotional lens.

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