llien
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WOMEN'S brains are 3.8 younger than the minds of men at the same age, according to a controversial new study.
"It's not that men's brains age faster," said scientist Dr Manu Goyal from the Washington University School of Medicine.
"They start adulthood about three years older than women, and that persists throughout life.
"I think this could mean that the reason women don't experience as much cognitive decline in later years is because their brains are effectively younger, and we're currently working on a study to confirm that."
Dr Goyal's team conducted brain scans on 121 women and 84 men.
The scientists then flipped the analysis around. They trained the algorithm to predict women’s ages from data garnered from their brain scans. This time, when they fed metabolism data from the men into the computer, it estimated them to be 2.4 years older than they were. The way male brains burned sugar made them seem older than female ones of the same age.
What they have actually measured:
How oxygen and glucose flowed through brains at different ages.
Our bodies use the pair of chemicals to sustain brain development as we grow from children to adults via a process known as aerobic glycolysis.
As adulthood progresses, less and less glucose is pumped through people's brains, and by the time we're 60, only a tiny amount makes its way through our minds.
The team trained an AI algorithm to guess people's ages based on the amount of oxygen and glucose flowing through their brain.
They then fed it the brain scans of their 205 volunteers.
The algorithm guessed that the female brains were aged around 3.8 years younger than their actual, chronological age.
PNAS
‘Brain differences begin in the womb’
Scans were taken of 118 foetuses in the second half of pregnancy.
One of the big differences was in connections between distant parts of the brain.
Girl produced more "long-range" neuron networks as they matured in the womb.
While it's impossible to know how this changes the way women think, differences in boys' brains were easier to decode.
Their connections were found to be more changeable than girls'. This may explain why men are more "vulnerable" than women, according to Professor Thomason.
"Males are more susceptible to environmental influences than female babies," she said.
"If that’s true that could partially account for the fact the male is more vulnerable, and programmable."
times (paywalled)
"It's not that men's brains age faster," said scientist Dr Manu Goyal from the Washington University School of Medicine.
"They start adulthood about three years older than women, and that persists throughout life.
"I think this could mean that the reason women don't experience as much cognitive decline in later years is because their brains are effectively younger, and we're currently working on a study to confirm that."
Dr Goyal's team conducted brain scans on 121 women and 84 men.
The scientists then flipped the analysis around. They trained the algorithm to predict women’s ages from data garnered from their brain scans. This time, when they fed metabolism data from the men into the computer, it estimated them to be 2.4 years older than they were. The way male brains burned sugar made them seem older than female ones of the same age.
What they have actually measured:
How oxygen and glucose flowed through brains at different ages.
Our bodies use the pair of chemicals to sustain brain development as we grow from children to adults via a process known as aerobic glycolysis.
As adulthood progresses, less and less glucose is pumped through people's brains, and by the time we're 60, only a tiny amount makes its way through our minds.
The team trained an AI algorithm to guess people's ages based on the amount of oxygen and glucose flowing through their brain.
They then fed it the brain scans of their 205 volunteers.
The algorithm guessed that the female brains were aged around 3.8 years younger than their actual, chronological age.
PNAS
‘Brain differences begin in the womb’
Scans were taken of 118 foetuses in the second half of pregnancy.
One of the big differences was in connections between distant parts of the brain.
Girl produced more "long-range" neuron networks as they matured in the womb.
While it's impossible to know how this changes the way women think, differences in boys' brains were easier to decode.
Their connections were found to be more changeable than girls'. This may explain why men are more "vulnerable" than women, according to Professor Thomason.
"Males are more susceptible to environmental influences than female babies," she said.
"If that’s true that could partially account for the fact the male is more vulnerable, and programmable."
times (paywalled)
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