A new study examining how the brains of men and women process oxygen and sugar has revealed that, on average, women's brains are about four years younger than men's brains. This could help explain why women tend to retain greater intelligence and stronger memory as they age compared to men.
In fact, older women perform better than older men in memory tests and in problem-solving skills. The lead author of the study, Dr. Manoj Goyal, stated, "We are just beginning to understand how various gender-related factors might influence brain aging and how this could affect the susceptibility of the brain to neurodegenerative diseases. Understanding the brain's metabolic system has helped explain some of the differences we observe between men and women as they age."
During the study, 205 individuals underwent scans to assess how their brains processed oxygen and sugar. It is known that as people age, less sugar is used to support the growth and maintenance of brain cells. The results indicated that men's brains were, in terms of metabolic system, 2.4 years older than their actual chronological age, while women's brains were 3.8 years younger than their real ages. Dr. Goyal added, "The average difference in calculated brain age between men and women is significant and can vary widely, but it is only a small fraction of the individual difference between any two people. While it is greater than many reported gender differences, it does not approach the magnitude of other significant individual differences between the sexes, such as height."
It is noteworthy that researchers confirmed the additional maturity of women's brains was more measurable among women in their twenties compared to others. Dr. Goyal went on to say, "It's not that men's brains age faster than women's; they begin maturing about three years earlier, and this continues throughout life. I think this may imply that the reason women do not experience as much cognitive decline in later years is that their brains are younger than men's. We are currently working on completing the study to confirm this."
