Schedule of Events | Symposia

A Spectroscopy Study of the Brain: Exploring Sex Differences in Healthy Older Adults

Poster Session E - Monday, March 31, 2025, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Angela Gushue^1,2 (agushue25@cmc.edu), Craig Stark¹, Poortata Lalwani¹; ¹University of California Irvine, ²Claremont McKenna College

Cognitive decline and aging-related disorders, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, disproportionately affect patients based on sex, but the mechanisms underlying these skewed effects are unknown. This proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-MRS) study seeks to understand if sex disparities in aging exist in neurochemical concentrations of older adult brains. Sixty-seven participants, ranging from 60 to 85 years of age, underwent the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and H-MRS. Concentrations of myo-inositol, total creatine, total NAA, and total choline were calculated in the dorsal posterior cingulate cortex, left hippocampal cortex, left medial temporal gyrus, left primary sensorimotor cortex, and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The extensive number of variables inspired dimensionality reduction approaches, such as Principal Component Analysis and Factor Analysis. Each dimension primarily correlated to several metabolites in one brain region. Logistic regression with 10,000 permutation significance tests and multiple regression were conducted with dimension scores to evaluate their relationship with sex, age, and MoCA scores. Our evidence suggests that a collection of metabolites in the medial temporal gyrus is a reliable predictor of sex. We also found that hippocampal and dorsal posterior cingulate metabolites are associated with age and MoCA scores, respectively. These three findings demonstrate H-MRS’s utility in detecting differential neurometabolic changes underlying sex, age and cognitive differences. Critically, we provide compelling evidence that biological sex cannot be overlooked in research examining pharmaceutical targets for slowing or reversing age-related pathology and cognitive decline.

Topic Area: OTHER