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The study included 121 women and 84 men, who underwent PET badysis to measure cerebral metabolism or the flow of oxygen and glucose in their brains.
Like other organs of the body, the brain uses sugar as fuel. But the way it metabolizes glucose can say a lot about the metabolic age of the brain.
The subjects ranged in age from 20 to 80 years and, in all ages, women's brains appeared metabolically younger than men's, said findings from the publication of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed American journal.
A machine-learned algorithm showed that women's brains were on average about 3.8 years younger than their chronological age.
And compared to men, men's brains were about 2.4 years older than their actual age.
"It's not that men's brains are aging faster," said lead author Manu Goyal, an badistant professor of radiology at the University of Washington's School of Medicine in St. Louis. .
"They start in adulthood with about three years older than women, and this lasts a lifetime," said Goyal.
But why?
One theory is that hormones could begin to shape brain metabolism at a young age, giving women a younger role model than men throughout their lives.
Scientists hope to find out whether metabolic differences in the brain can play a protective role for women, who tend to perform better than men on cognitive tests of reason, memory and problem solving in people elderly.
This "could mean that women do not experience as much cognitive decline in recent years because their brains are actually younger," Goyal said.
Other work is underway to confirm and better understand the implications of the research.
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