Alzheimer’s tests may show different brain changes in women and men ^{CEFR B2}

A new study published in Brain Communications by a Georgia State University team shows that standard cognitive screening tools for Alzheimer’s disease can reflect different brain changes in women and men. The researchers examined common measures such as the 30-point Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and considered the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage. Their results suggest that a good MMSE score in the MCI stage may not fully capture underlying brain changes in some women.

The team analyzed structural brain scans from 332 people at various disease stages and compared patterns across sexes. They found that men tended to show more focal shrinkage earlier, during the transition from normal cognition to MCI. In contrast, women showed a steeper and more widespread decline later, from MCI to Alzheimer’s disease. Women’s cognitive scores were associated with a broader range of brain regions, which the authors interpret as the female brain recruiting additional areas to support function and partly mask structural decline on standard tests.

The study’s lead author work was guided by Mukesh Dhamala and led by doctoral student Chandrama Mukherjee. The authors say these findings support sex-calibrated interpretation of screening tools and could help move diagnosis, biomarkers and treatment trials away from a one-size-fits-all framework toward more sex-informed approaches. Planned next steps include tracking patients over time and studying how hormones and genetics influence these differences. Researchers stress that prevention advice—stay mentally and physically active, manage vascular health, and discuss family history or genetic risk with a doctor—remains unchanged.