Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Gender-specificities in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment

  • ORIGINAL COMMUNICATION
  • Published:
Journal of Neurology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a condition with an increased risk for developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). Presently, gender differences are neglected in the assessment of MCI and AD.

Methods

We examined verbal and visuospatial episodic memory in 143 subjects diagnosed as healthy controls (HC; N = 48, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) 29.2 ± 1.0 (mean ± standard deviation)), MCI (N = 43,MMSE 28.5 ± 1.4), and AD (N = 49, MMSE 25.1 ± 2.2).

Findings

Female HC and MCI subjects performed better on verbal episodic memory tasks than males. In contrast, visuospatial episodic memory was better in male than female AD patients.

Conclusions

We interpret the results in light of a genderspecific cognitive reserve and conclude that the gender-specificity of neuropsychological performance needs to be accounted for in clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Aartsen MJ, Martin M, Zimprich D (2004) Gender differences in level and change in cognitive functioning. Results from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Gerontology 50:35–38

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Bachman DL, Wolf PA, Linn R, Knoefel JE, Cobb J, Belanger A, D'Agostino RB, White LR (1992) Prevalence of dementia and probable senile dementia of the Alzheimer type in the Framingham Study. Neurology 42:115–119

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Backman L, Small BJ, Fratiglioni L (2001) Stability of the preclinical episodic memory deficit in Alzheimer's disease. Brain 124:96–102

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Barnes LL, Wilson RS, Schneider JA, Bienias JL, Evans DA, Bennett DA (2003) Gender, cognitive decline, and risk of AD in older persons. Neurology 60:1777–1781

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Barrett-Connor E, Kritz-Silverstein D (1999) Gender differences in cognitive function with age: the Rancho Bernardo study. J Am Geriatr Soc 47:159–164

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Bayles KA, Azuma T, Cruz RF, Tomoeda CK, Wood JA, Montgomery EBJ (1999) Gender differences in language of Alzheimer disease patients revisited. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 13:138–146

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Beinhoff U, Hilbert V, Bittner D, Gron G, Riepe MW (2005) Screening for Cognitive Impairment: A Triage for Outpatient Care. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord 20:278–285

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Bleecker ML, Bolla-Wilson K, Agnew J, Meyers DA (1988) Age-related sex differences in verbal memory. J Clin Psychol 44:403–411

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Brookmeyer R, Gray S, Kawas C (1998) Projections of Alzheimer's disease in the United States and the public health impact of delaying disease onset. Am J Public Health 88:1337–1342

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Buckwalter JG, Rizzo AA, McCleary R, Shankle R, Dick M, Henderson VW (1996) Gender comparisons of cognitive performances among vascular dementia, Alzheimer disease, and older adults without dementia. Arch Neurol 53:436–439

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Burns A, Zaudig M (2002) Mild cognitive impairment in older people. Lancet 360:1963–1965

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Buschke H, Kuslansky G, Katz M, Stewart WF, Sliwinski MJ, Eckholdt HM, Lipton RB (1999) Screening for dementia with the memory impairment screen. Neurology 52:231–238

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Folstein MF, Folstein SE, McHugh PR (1975) "Mini-mental state". A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatr Res 12:189–198

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Gron G, Bittner D, Schmitz B, Wunderlich AP, Riepe MW (2002) Subjective memory complaints: Objective neural markers in patients with Alzheimer's disease and major depressive disorder. Ann Neurol 51:491–498

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Gron G, Bittner D, Schmitz B, Wunderlich AP, Tomczak R, Riepe MW (2003) Variability in memory performance in aged healthy individuals: an fMRI study. Neurobiol Aging 24:453–462

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Gron G, Wunderlich AP, Spitzer M, Tomczak R, Riepe MW (2000) Brain activation during human navigation: gender-different neural networks as substrate of performance. Nat Neurosci 3:404–408

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Hebert LE, Wilson RS, Gilley DW, Beckett LA, Scherr PA, Bennett DA, Evans DA (2000) Decline of language among women and men with Alzheimer's disease. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 55:354–360

    Google Scholar 

  18. Henderson VW (1997) The epidemiology of estrogen replacement therapy and Alzheimer's disease. Neurology 48:S27–S35

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Henderson VW, Buckwalter JG (1994) Cognitive deficits of men and women with Alzheimer's disease. Neurology 44:90–96

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Herlitz A, Airaksinen E, Nordstrom E (1999) Sex differences in episodic memory: the impact of verbal and visuospatial ability. Neuropsychology 13:590–597

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Herlitz A, Nilsson LG, Backman L (1997) Gender differences in episodic memory. Mem Cognit 25:801–811

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Howlett DR, Richardson JC, Austin A, Parsons AA, Bate ST, Davies DC, Gonzalez MI (2004) Cognitive correlates of Abeta deposition in male and female mice bearing amyloid precursor protein and presenilin-1 mutant transgenes. Brain Res 1017:130–136

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Kramer JH, Yaffe K, Lengenfelder J, Delis DC (2003) Age and gender interactions on verbal memory performance. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 9:97–102

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Launer LJ, Andersen K, Dewey ME, Letenneur L, Ott A, Amaducci LA, Brayne C, Copeland JR, Dartigues JF, Kragh-Sorensen P, Lobo A, Martinez- Lage JM, Stijnen T, Hofman A (1999) Rates and risk factors for dementia and Alzheimer's disease: results from EURODEM pooled analyses. EURODEM Incidence Research Group and Work Groups. European Studies of Dementia. Neurology 52:78–84

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Le Carret N, Auriacombe S, Letenneur L, Bergua V, Dartigues JF, Fabrigoule C (2005) Influence of education on the pattern of cognitive deterioration in AD patients: the cognitive reserve hypothesis. Brain Cogn 57:120–126

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Lewin C, Wolgers G, Herlitz A (2001) Sex differences favoring women in verbal but not in visuospatial episodic memory. Neuropsychology 15:165–173

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Maitland SB, Herlitz A, Nyberg L, Backman L, Nilsson LG (2004) Selective sex differences in declarative memory. Mem Cognit 32:1160–1169

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. McPherson S, Back C, Buckwalter JG, Cummings JL (1999) Gender-related cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease. Int Psychogeriatr 11:117–122

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Palmer K, Backman L, Winblad B, Fratiglioni L (2003) Detection of Alzheimer's disease and dementia in the preclinical phase: population based cohort study. BMJ 326:245

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Parsons TD, Larson P, Kratz K, Thiebaux M, Bluestein B, Buckwalter JG, Rizzo AA (2004) Sex differences in mental rotation and spatial rotation in a virtual environment. Neuropsychologia 42:555–562

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Petersen RC, Doody R, Kurz A, Mohs RC, Morris JC, Rabins PV, Ritchie K, Rossor M, Thal L, Winblad B (2001) Current concepts in mild cognitive impairment. Arch Neurol 58:1985–1992

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Petersen RC, Smith GE, Waring SC, Ivnik RJ, Tangalos EG, Kokmen E (1999) Mild cognitive impairment: clinical characterization and outcome. Arch Neurol 56:303–308

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Ripich DN, Petrill SA, Whitehouse PJ, Ziol EW (1995) Gender differences in language of AD patients: a longitudinal study. Neurology 45:299–302

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Schmidt KH, Metzler P (1992) WST – Wortschatztest. Beltz, Weinheim

  35. Stern Y (2002) What is cognitive reserve? Theory and research application of the reserve concept. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 8:448–460

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Stern Y, Habeck C, Moeller J, Scarmeas N, Anderson KE, Hilton HJ, Flynn J, Sackeim H, Van Heertum R (2005) Brain networks associated with cognitive reserve in healthy young and old adults. Cereb Cortex 15:394–402

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Wang J, Tanila H, Puolivali J, Kadish I, van Groen T (2003) Gender differences in the amount and deposition of amyloidbeta in APPswe and PS1 double transgenic mice. Neurobiol Dis 14:318–327

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Wechsler D (1987) Wechsler memory scale – revised manual. San Antonio, TX

  39. Whalley LJ, Deary IJ, Appleton CL, Starr JM (2004) Cognitive reserve and the neurobiology of cognitive aging. Ageing Res Rev 3:369–382

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Yonker JE, Eriksson E, Nilsson LG, Herlitz A (2003) Sex differences in episodic memory:Minimal influence of estradiol. Brain Cogn 52:231–238

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Psychiatry, Mental Health and Old Age Psychiatry, Charité Medical University, Eschenallee 3, 14050, Berlin, Germany

    U. Beinhoff Dipl.-Psych &  M. W. Riepe MD

  2. Dept. of Neurology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    H. Tumani MD, J. Brettschneider MD & D. Bittner MD

Authors
  1. U. Beinhoff Dipl.-Psych
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. H. Tumani MD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. J. Brettschneider MD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. D. Bittner MD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. M. W. Riepe MD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. W. Riepe MD.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Beinhoff, U., Tumani, H., Brettschneider, J. et al. Gender-specificities in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment. J Neurol 255, 117–122 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-008-0726-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-008-0726-9

Key words

Search

Navigation