Centre for Policy on Ageing



Sex differences after all those years? — heritability of cognitive abilities in old age
Author(s)	Sanna Read, Nancy L Pedersen, Margaret Gatz
Journal title	Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 61B, no 3, May 2006
Pages	pp P137-P143
Source	http://www.geron.org
Keywords	Older men ; Older women ; Biological ageing ; Cognitive processes ; Evaluation ; Twins ; Comparison ; Sweden.
Annotation	Sex differences in genetic and environmental effects on cognitive abilities in older twins was investigated for 647 twin pairs from the Swedish Twin Registry. Cognitive measures included Synonyms, Block Design, Digit Span, Thurstone's Picture Memory, Symbol Digit, and general cognitive ability tests. Higher age was related to lower performance in all cognitive measures, except synonyms. For digit span forward, symbol digit and general cognitive ability tests, there was a Sex x Age interaction, with greater deficits in the performance of women compared with those of men at higher ages. No sex-specific genetic influences were found, that is, the same genetic effects were operating for men and women. Furthermore, the magnitude of the genetic effect was similar for men and women. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-070504208 A
Classmark	BC: BD: BH: DA: 4C: SVR: 48: 76P
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.