The aging of the human brain varies greatly from subject to subject: some individuals experience rapid cognitive decline, while others maintain their cognitive abilities intact even in old age. According to some studies, brain aging would be linked primarily to impaired brain metabolism, particularly glucose metabolism, and not only to neurodegenerative phenomena, which is the currently most accepted thesis.
In this line of research is a recent paper, published in a prestigious American journal, which aimed to show that sex differences are able to influence the morphology and physiology of the brain during development and aging.
Through the use of data acquired by brain PET scan from 205 normal adult subjects, aged 20 to 82 years, it was found that throughout adult life the female brain, compared with the male brain, has a persistently lower metabolic brain age than the chronological brain age.
According to the authors of the article, belonging to the Washington University School of Medicine. St. Louis, sexual differences would be able to influence brain aging, in favor of women, the whose brains, with the same age of birth, would be a few years younger than The male one.
SOURCE
Manu S. Goyal et al. Persistent metabolic youth in the aging female brain. PNAS February 19, 2019 116 (8) 3251-3255.
