Scans Show Women's Brains Remain Youthful As Male Brains Wind Down

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/02/04/691356272/scans-show-womens-brains-remain-youthful-as-male-brains-wind-down

Jon Hamilton
February 4, 2019

Women tend to have more youthful brains than their male counterparts – at least when it comes to metabolism.

While age reduces the metabolism of all brains, women retain a higher rate throughout the lifespan, researchers reported Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Females had a younger brain age relative to males," says Dr. Manu Goyal, an assistant professor of radiology and neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. And that may mean women are better equipped to learn and be creative in later life, he says.

The finding is "great news for many women," says Roberta Diaz Brinton, who wasn't connected with the study and directs the Center for Innovation in Brain Science at the University of Arizona Health Sciences. But she cautions that even though women's brain metabolism is higher overall, some women's brains experience a dramatic metabolic decline around menopause, leaving them vulnerable to Alzheimer's.

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Women's brains appeared about four years younger, on average.

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