The brains of women metabolically younger than those of men, a study revealed

According to a new study, women have a younger brain than men of the same age.

A study based on age of metabolism rather than date of birth revealed an average difference of 3.8 years between the two.

This discovery may help explain why women are more likely than men to remain mentally intelligent later, according to scientists.

All brains become smaller with age and it was already known that men tended to contract faster.

The new research focused on metabolic processes that have a major influence on brain performance and aging.

The US team examined scanned images of the brain by PET (Positron Emission Tomography) of 205 men and women aged 20 to 82 years.

PET scanners open a window to cerebral metabolism by measuring the flow of oxygen and glucose. The brain consumes large amounts of sugar to glucose to produce energy, but its mode of consumption changes with age.

For this study, scientists used a computer-based machine learning program to explore the relationship between metabolic age and the chronological age of the brain.

They found that metabolic aging of the brain followed chronological aging in both men and women.

However, data badysis showed that, regardless of age, women's brains were metabolically younger than men's – an average of 3.8 years.

The relative youth of women's brains is detectable, even among the youngest participants, said researchers writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Manu Goyal, Senior Scientist at the University of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis, said, "The brains of men do not age faster.

"What we do not know is what it means. I think that could mean that women do not experience as much cognitive decline in the last few years because their brains are actually younger, and we are currently working on a study to confirm that. "

The initial study was conducted by first training the machine learning algorithm using data on the age of men and brain metabolism.

The program then had to calculate the age of each woman's brain from her metabolism.

When the inversion of the study – forming the algorithm on women's data and applying it to men – gave a slightly different result. However, it has always been found that men's brains were 2.4 years older than women's.

In their article, the researchers wrote, "We find that throughout an adult's life, a woman's brain has an ever-lower brain metabolic age – relative to its chronological age – relative to to the brain of man.

"The average age of the metabolic brain (minus the actual age) was on average 3.8 years (years) lower for women compared to men."

Scientists have pointed out that older women tend to perform better than men of the same age in reason, memory and problem-solving skills.

They are now following a group of adults as they get older to see if people whose brains look younger are less likely to develop cognitive problems.