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

Abstract

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