You've heard of being "young at heart," but what about young in the brain? A new study suggests that, by at least one measure, women's brains are biologically younger than men's of the same age.
The researchers analyzed brain scans of more than 200 adults, specifically looking at a measure of the brain's metabolism that's known to change with age. They found that, based on these metabolic levels, women's brains appeared about three years younger, on average, than men's brains of the same chronological age.
The findings still need to be confirmed in follow-up studies. But if true, the researchers hypothesize that having a metabolically "younger" brain might provide women with "some degree of resilience to aging-related changes" in the brain. This in turn may help explain why women tend to experience less of a decline in thinking abilities as they age, the researchers wrote in the study, published today (Feb. 4) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"What we don't know is what it means
