Men’s brains seem to shrink faster than women’s: what does this mean?

That women have been largely ignored in medical research throughout history is not surprising. It was therefore surprising to find that women’s brains shrink more slowly with age than men’s. When a group of scientists from University of Oslo finally compared both brains with a large number of participants and found data that contradicts some widely held ideas.

And, curiously, there are many more cases. Alzheimer’s disease in women than in men. For example, in Europe the incidence is 7.02 cases per thousand people per year for men and 13.25 cases per year per 1000 people for women. This suggests that women’s brains age worse. However, for a long time it was believed that brain contraction was sign of aging and after what has just been discovered, it begins to seem less likely.

At least it shouldn’t be the only factor affecting aging, since the male brain shrinks much faster and in many more areas than the female brain. What does this all mean? At the moment we do not have an answer. However, it is clear that there was a very important factor that was not taken into account when studying diseases associated with aging.

How do female and male brains contract?

To conduct the most comprehensive study of brain shrinkage to date, scientists collected over 12,000 brain scans was carried out over several years. Participants had from 17 to 95 years old and was carried out at least two MRIs of the brain. Between each of them there was an interval of at least three years. This allowed us to find out how the brain changes over the years in the same person and in compare people of different ages.

Thus, with age, there was a decrease in the number of areas of the male brain. First of all, it was found in the bark. In contrast, women showed a decrease in the number of regions, and their cortical thickness changed less with age. But not only do women’s brains remain more intact at this level. Overall, gender differences were observed in total brain volume, subcortical brain volume, cortical thickness and surface area, and dozens of other measurements.

What does all this mean in relation to aging?

The reality is that we don’t know what any of this means. Brain shrinkage is associated with aging, and men’s brains have been shown to shrink faster than women’s. Moreover, this happens especially in cortical areas. Changes in these regions are what differentiate normal-aging people from super-aging people, who age much more slowly at the brain level. Therefore, the fact that women’s brains shrink less would mean that women are more protected from diseases associated with aging. This is the case, for example, with Alzheimer’s disease.

Since we know that this is not so, it is clear that There are other factors that need to be examined. It is also unknown whether this may be related to the fact that men have a lower life expectancy than women. And it does seem interesting if we read this in the context of those scholars who in the past believed that women were less intelligent because they had smaller brains.

Regardless, this discovery reminds us of the importance of looking for differences between the sexes for any biological component we want to study. If we want to ensure the health of 100% of the population, we cannot study only 50%. This study is an excellent example of this.