Da malattia rara, la Malattia di Alzheimer è divenuta in un secolo una delle 8 principali patologie nel mondo.

Tra i 60 e i 90 anni l'incidenza negli uomini aumenta di due volte, nelle donne di ben 41 volte.

The human corpus callosum has been already demonstrated by a large number of studies to show a sexual dimorphism. This study investigated if the sex differences in brain size, larger in men than in women, or biological sex per se account for the apparent sex differences in callosal morphology. For this purpose, the authors compared the callosal thickness on MRI between 24 men and 24 women matched for overall brain size.

The present study investigated the effects of age, gender, and age-by-gender interactions on 18 neu-roanatomical volumes in 861 normal subjects aged 24–84 years. All subjects underwent magnetic resonance scanning at 3.0 Tesla and 18 neuroanatomical volumes were measured. Differences in volumes of neuroanatomical structures were tested using analysis of covariance with intracranial volume-normalized volume as the dependent variable, and independent variables of age and sex.

Many factors, such as genetic susceptibility, age, sex, and sex hormones, influence the incidence and the disease course of multiple sclerosis (MS). MS affects almost three times more women than men, and both factors (advanced age and gender) were associated with worsening disability and more rapid progression of the disease. Moreover, women whose onset of MS symptoms occurred after age 50 are more likely to have a progressive course than women with an earlier onset, and the female/male ratio for individuals in this group is lower than in individuals with onset between ages 18-49.

This study was aimed at examining the perceptions regarding AD among a representative sample of 632 adult (18+ years old) Israeli people. Since gender is one factor that may influence lay persons’ worry and concern about developing AD, this study focused on examining gender differences in these perceptions. The results showed that males and the females had no statistically differences in their awareness of AD.

It is well established that the human brain is composed of two hemispheres specialized in the processing of specific information: left hemisphere is specialized in the processing of verbal information, while right hemisphere is specialized in the processing of visuospatial information. This divided work between the hemispheres is called “hemispheric lateralization”. However, hemispheres closely communicate and exchange information through the corpus callusum.

Wilson disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder that results in copper accumulation in many human tissues (brain, liver, cornea) and secondary damages to affected organs. In the brain, pathological changes are mainly localised in the basal ganglia. Because gender influence on the clinical manifestations of WD has been suggested but there is a lack of studies investigating MRI gender differences in WD, the aim of this study was to examine retrospectively gender differences in 204 untreated WD patients using brain MRI.

Gender differences are a common phenomenon and manifest in many ways, including cognitive, psychiatric, and behavioral characteristics. Studies on gender differences in dementia are still insufficient, especially for vascular dementia (VaD). Given that the female predominance in depression and anxiety following stroke, the main cause of VaD, has been identified, the authors of this study hypothesized that there would be gender-specific presentations in neuropsychiatric symptoms of VaD as long as gender differences in cognitive impairment.

A functional neuroimaging study assessing gender differences in the neural mechanisms underlying the ability to resist impulsive desires.
Diekhof EK, Keil M, Obst KU, Henseler I, Dechent P, Falkai P, Gruber O.
Brain Res. 2012;1473:63-77.

The researcher hypothesis was that at an equivalent cognitive level, men would have greater white matter (WM) microstructural damage compared with women This might suggest that men have a greater degree of brain reserve than women as they are maintaining cognition at an equivalent level to their female counterparts despite the presence of greater WM damage.