Whose brain ages earlier – women’s or men’s? Scientists’ experiment and gerontologist’s opinion

gerontologist, neurologist, chief physician of the Clinic of Restorative Neurology

The human brain tends to shrink over the years, but this happens faster in men than in women. The metabolism in this organ slows down with age, and it is the metabolic rate in the brain that determines this difference.

Brain function at different ages

The brain runs on glucose, but its consumption differs at different ages. Infants and children use some of their brain energy in a process called aerobic glycolysis. It supports brain development and maturation. The remaining glucose is used in the process of performing everyday tasks: thinking and acting.

In adolescents and young adults, a significant portion of the glucose in the brain is also used for aerobic glycolysis. But this proportion steadily declines with age, stabilizing at a very low level by about age 60.

Men’s brains age faster

A study conducted by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that women’s brains are about three years younger than men’s brains of the same age, metabolically speaking. For this reason, young ladies retain their mental acuity longer than the opposite sex.

The study involved 105 people: 21 women and 84 men between the ages of 20 and 82. All volunteers underwent PET scans to measure the flow of oxygen and glucose in the brain.

For each person, the researchers determined the fraction of sugar involved in aerobic glycolysis in different brain regions. The authors of the paper trained a machine learning algorithm to find the relationship between age and brain metabolism by feeding it data from the participants.

The system showed that women had an average of 3.8 years less than chronological brain age.

The researchers also did the reverse analysis: trained the algorithm on the women’s data and applied it to the men’s data. This time, the system reported that men’s brains were 2.4 years older than their true age. The relative youthfulness of women’s brains was found even among the youngest participants, who were in their early 20s.

The secret to keeping your brain young

Keeping the brain young and healthy is possible at any age. This is due to neuroplasticity – the property of the human brain to change under the influence of experience, as well as to restore lost connections after damage.

It has long been believed that brain plasticity peaks at a young age and gradually declines as we get older. This is also emphasized by the expression that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”.

The implication is that people who are used to doing things a certain way will not easily give up their habits and change their behavior.

How to develop brain plasticity

Cognitive training and learning new things leads to better and improved performance on motor or any other task. For example, such as learning a foreign language or practicing music.

In addition to functional changes in the brain, training also causes changes in the regional structures of the gray and white matter of the brain. That is, the formation of new neural connections, synapses that are normally engaged during a task.

The importance of neuroplasticity should not be underestimated. We live in a very dynamic society in which technological developments are occurring at a rapid pace. This forces people to abandon their pre-existing habits and replace them with new ones, constantly challenging the adaptability and flexibility of their brains.