Biomedical subjects

Agneta Herlitz

Publications and source records attributed to Agneta Herlitz.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Women remember more faces than men do.

Women have been found to outperform men on face recognition tasks, specifically in the recognition of female faces. Men do not seem to exhibit a corresponding own-sex bias. To examine the generality and possible reasons for these patterns, 107 men and 112 women viewed faces of both children and adults of either Swedish or Bangladeshi origin, for later recognition. As expected, women were especially good at remembering female faces, but also outperformed men on male faces. Men did not show an own-sex bias. Thus, regardless of age and ethnicity of the faces, women performed at a higher level than men on both female and male faces, possibly reflecting enhanced interest in faces, and in particular, female faces.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

The association between endogenous free testosterone and cognitive performance: a population-based study in 35 to 90 year-old men and women.

The relationship between testosterone (T) and cognition has yielded conflicting evidence, showing both positive and negative influences of T on cognitive performance. The association between free testosterone (FT) and cognition was revisited in a large population-based sample of 1276 women and 1107 men (35-90 years of age), assessed individually on visuospatial, verbal fluency, semantic, and episodic memory tasks. For men, higher FT levels were associated with better visuospatial abilities, semantic memory, and episodic memory, with greater positive influence with increasing age. Statistical covariates included age, education, and select medications. For women, FT was negatively associated with verbal fluency, semantic memory, and episodic memory, although only verbal fluency was significant at conventional alpha levels. These results support the claim that FT exerts sex-specific influences on cognitive performance.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Negative association of testosterone on spatial visualization in 35 to 80 year old men.

Androgens have been linked to visuospatial ability. We examined the relationship between serum free testosterone (T) levels and spatial visualization ability in a population-based sample of 450 healthy men between the ages of 35 and 80 years. They were tested on block design and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) draw-a-figure, as well as tasks assessing episodic memory, semantic memory, procedural memory, and verbal fluency. Blood was analyzed for free T and estradiol. Participants were grouped into high or low free T based on age-specific median values. Participants with low free T performed at a superior level on both the block design task and draw-a-figure task as compared to participants with high free T. The results are discussed within the scant body of research on androgens and cognition in men.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Higher face recognition ability in girls: Magnified by own-sex and own-ethnicity bias.

Earlier studies on adults have shown sex differences in face recognition. Women tend to recognise more faces of other women than men do, whereas there are no sex differences with regard to male faces. In order to test the generality of earlier findings and to examine potential reasons for the observed pattern of sex differences, two groups of Swedish 9-year-old children (n = 101 and n = 96) viewed faces of either Swedish or Bangladeshi children and adults for later recognition. Results showed that girls outperformed boys in recognition of female faces, irrespective of ethnicity and age of the faces. Boys and girls recognised Swedish male faces to an equal extent, whereas girls recognised more Bangladeshi male faces than boys did. These results indicate that three factors explain the magnitude of sex differences in face recognition: an overall female superior face recognition ability, the correspondence between the sex of viewer and the gender of the face, and prior knowledge of the ethnicity of the face.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Stability of sex differences in cognition in advanced old age: the role of education and attrition.

We examined whether patterns of sex differences on tasks of perceptual speed, episodic memory, verbal fluency, and verbal knowledge are maintained during advanced old age. Using incomplete 13-year longitudinal data from participants in the Berlin Aging Study screened for dementia (N = 368; M = 83 years; range 70-100 years at baseline assessment), we estimated sex-specific age trajectories of cognitive change and explored the contributing role of education and attrition. We found that women and men declined virtually in parallel, with no evidence of differential change. After we controlled for age cohort-related differences in education, women outperformed men on tasks in the four cognitive domains. Findings also provide initial evidence that sex differences might be masked by differential patterns of sample attrition.

Aged↗

PubMed2006

Sex differences in cognition among illiterate Bangladeshis: a comparison with literate Bangladeshis and Swedes.

We investigated the presence and magnitude of sex differences in late adulthood, assessing 426 illiterate Bangladeshis, 239 literate Bangladeshis, and 598 Swedes. The cognitive domains examined included calculation, episodic memory, spatial visualization, and global cognitive ability. In general, men performed at a higher level than women on tasks assessing calculation and spatial visualization, whereas women performed at a higher level than men on the episodic memory task. Notably, the pattern of cognitive sex differences was similar irrespective of nationality and literacy, although the magnitude of the male advantage was inversely related to level of education. Finally, the low performance of the illiterate women demonstrated the penalizing effect restrictions in public exposure might have on cognitive performance.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Sex differences in spatial visualization and episodic memory as a function of alcohol consumption.

AIMS: Sex differences in visuospatial ability as well as episodic memory have been reliably demonstrated, irrespective of alcoholism. Studies in alcoholics have consistently documented cognitive deficits in visuospatial ability, problem solving and memory function. This cross-sectional, population-based study examined if sex differences in cognitive performance could be impacted by alcohol consumption. METHODS: Drinking data were collected from 2224 randomly sampled adults, aged between 35 and 85 years, who participated in the Betula study on memory, health and aging. Participants were classified into non-, light, moderate and heavy drinking subgroups based on sex-adjusted normative values. Cognitive tasks demonstrating clear sex differences, such as episodic memory tasks (favouring women) and spatial visualization tasks (favouring men), were conducted and performance was assessed by sex and the drinking group. RESULTS: After controlling for age and education, overall analyses found expected sex differences in episodic memory and spatial visualization that were apparent across the entire population. When these sex differences were examined by drinking group, visuospatial performance favouring men disappeared for the moderate to heavy drinking groups, but higher performance by women on episodic memory tasks was consistent across all levels of alcohol consumption. Traditional biomarkers of increased alcohol consumption (GGT and MCV) correlated with the reported drinks/day. CONCLUSIONS: These results lend support to the theory that moderate alcohol intake may be beneficial to cognitive function in women, but not necessarily in men.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Sex-differential brain activation during exposure to female and male faces.

Sex-discriminating facial features are examples of visual information involved in guiding social behavior. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess brain responses in face-relevant brain areas in men and women during exposure to neutral male and female faces. An increased fMRI signal was found in the left amygdala and adjacent anterior temporal regions in men, but not in women, during exposure to faces of the opposite versus the same sex. These data indicate that the relationship between the sex of the subject and the sex of the face affects activity in the inferior temporal lobe. The sex-differential nature of this activation pattern may reflect sex differences in cognitive style and attentional processes when confronting faces of the opposite sex.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Selective sex differences in declarative memory.

Sex invariance of a six-factor, higher order model of declarative memory (two second-order factors: episodic and semantic memory; and four first-order factors: recall, recognition, fluency, and knowledge) was established for 1,796 participants (35-85 years). Metric invariance of first- and second-order factor loadings across sex was demonstrated. At the second-order level, a female advantage was observed for both episodic and semantic memory. At the first-order level, sex differences in episodic memory were apparent for both recall and recognition, whereas the differences in semantic memory were driven by a female superiority in fluency. Additional tests of sex differences in three age groups (35-50, 55-65, and 70-85 years of age) indicated that the female superiority in declarative memory diminished with advancing age. The factor-specific sex differences are discussed in relation to sex differences in hippocampal function.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Sex differences in episodic memory: minimal influence of estradiol.

Sex differences exist for several cognitive tasks and estrogen has been suggested to influence these differences. Eighteen men and 18 women were matched on age and estradiol level. Potential sex differences were assessed in episodic memory, semantic memory, verbal fluency, problem solving, and visuospatial ability. Significant sex differences, favoring women, were found for tasks assessing episodic memory. Correlations between estradiol level and cognitive performance were significant for face recognition in females. Since sex differences remained in verbal episodic memory tasks and face recognition despite matched levels of estradiol, circulating estradiol does not appear to be of paramount consequence for observed sex differences in episodic memory.

Cognition↗

PubMed2002

Sex differences in face recognition--women's faces make the difference.

Sex differences favoring women have been found in face recognition tasks as well as in verbal episodic memory tasks. Women's higher face recognition performance was hypothesized to be related to either their higher verbal ability or to their superiority in recognizing female faces, rather than faces in general. Results showed that whereas there were no differences between men and women in the recognition of male faces, or in verbal ability, women performed at a higher level than men in the recognition of female faces. Verbal ability did not influence women's face recognition performance. Potential explanations for this pattern of data, such as sex differences in interest and prior knowledge, are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Sex differences in episodic memory: the influence of intelligence.

The influence of estimated intelligence (group assessment of WAIS-R( S)) on sex differences in face recognition, as well as verbal and non-verbal episodic memory tasks was examined in 99 women and 88 men between 20 and 40 years of age. Results showed that men performed at a higher level than women on the WAIS-R(S) subtest Information, whereas the opposite was true for Digit symbol. Women performed at a higher level than men on the verbal episodic memory tasks and on face recognition, but there were no sex differences on the non-verbal episodic memory task. Estimated intelligence for both men and women was positively associated with most episodic memory measures, the exception being face recognition in women. In face recognition, there was no association to estimated intelligence, suggesting that face recognition performance in women is unrelated to several basic cognitive processes.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Sex differences in cognition are stable over a 10-year period in adulthood and old age.

Sex differences in declarative memory and visuospatial ability are robust in cross-sectional studies. The present longitudinal study examined whether sex differences in cognition were present over a 10-year period, and whether age modified the magnitude of sex differences. Tests assessing episodic and semantic memory, and visuospatial ability were administered to 625 nondemented adults (initially aged 35-80 years), participating in the population-based Betula study at two follow-up occasions. There was stability of sex differences across five age groups and over a 10-year period. Women performed at a higher level than men on episodic recall, face and verbal recognition, and semantic fluency, whereas men performed better than women on a task-assessing, visuospatial ability. Sex differences in cognitive functions are stable over a 10-year period and from 35 to 90 years of age.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Verified hormone therapy improves episodic memory performance in healthy postmenopausal women.

Studies of hormone therapy (HT) and cognition have yielded conflicting results. The aim of this observational study was to examine the effect of estradiol, via serum verified HT (estradiol, estriol, progesterone) and endogenous estradiol, on 108 healthy postmenopausal women's cognitive performance. The results demonstrated that the 43 HT-users performed at a significantly higher level than non-users on episodic memory tasks and on a verbal fluency task, whereas HT-users and non-users did not differ on tasks assessing semantic memory and spatial visualization. In addition, there was a positive relationship between serum estradiol level and episodic memory performance, indicating that postmenopausal HT is associated with enhanced episodic memory and verbal fluency, independent of age and education. These observational results suggest that HT use may be sufficient to exert small, yet positive effects on female sensitive cognitive tasks. Hormone therapy compliance and formulation is discussed as confounding factors in previous research.

Analysis of Variance↗