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The magnitude of sex differences in verbal episodic memory increases with social progress: Data from 54 countries across 40 years.

ABSTRACT: Sex differences in episodic memory have been reported. We investigate (1) the existence of sex differences in verbal and other episodic memory tasks in 54 countries, and (2) the association between the time- and country-specific social progress indicators (a) female to male ratio in education and labor force participation, (b) population education and employment, and (c) GDP per capita, and magnitude of sex differences in verbal episodic memory tasks. Data were retrieved from 612 studies, published 1973-2013. Results showed that females outperformed (Cohen's d > 0) males in verbal (42 out of 45 countries) and other (28 out of 45 countries) episodic memory tasks. Although all three social progress indicators were, separately, positively associated with the female advantage in verbal episodic memory performance, only population education and employment remained significant when considering the social indicators together. Results suggest that women's verbal episodic memory performance benefits more than men's from education and employment.

SUBMITTER: Asperholm M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6476491 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The magnitude of sex differences in verbal episodic memory increases with social progress: Data from 54 countries across 40 years.

Asperholm Martin M Nagar Sanket S Dekhtyar Serhiy S Herlitz Agneta A

PloS one 20190422 4

Sex differences in episodic memory have been reported. We investigate (1) the existence of sex differences in verbal and other episodic memory tasks in 54 countries, and (2) the association between the time- and country-specific social progress indicators (a) female to male ratio in education and labor force participation, (b) population education and employment, and (c) GDP per capita, and magnitude of sex differences in verbal episodic memory tasks. Data were retrieved from 612 studies, publis ...[more]

PMID: 31009465

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Project description:The aim of this study was to determine the neural correlates of different stages of episodic memory function and their modulation by Alzheimer's disease (AD). Several decades of work has supported the role of the medial temporal lobes (MTL) in episodic memory function. However, a more recent work, derived in part from functional neuroimaging studies, has suggested that other brain structures make up a large-scale network that appears to support successful encoding and retrieval of episodic memories. Furthermore, controversy exists as to whether dissociable MTL regions support qualitatively different aspects of memory (hippocampus: contextual memory or 'recollection'; perirhinal/lateral entorhinal cortex: item memory or 'familiarity'). There is limited neuropsychological support for these models and most work in AD only has examined free recall memory measures. We studied the relationship between performance on different stages of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), a 15-item word list learning task, and structural MRI measures in mild AD patients. Structural measures included hippocampal volume and cortical thickness of several ROIs known to undergo atrophy in AD. Correlation and multiple regression analyses, controlling for age, education, and gender, were performed in 146 mild AD patients (MMSE 23.3±2.0). To evaluate the robustness of these relationships, similar analyses were performed with additional standardized verbal memory measures. Early immediate recall trials (e.g. Trial 1 of the AVLT) were not associated with the size of MTL regions, but correlated most strongly with inferior parietal, middle frontal gyrus, and temporal pole ROIs. After repeated exposure (e.g. Trial 5 of the AVLT), immediate recall was correlated with both MTL and a similar distribution of isocortical structures, but most strongly the temporal pole. For delayed recall, only the hippocampus correlated with performance. In contrast, for delayed recognition discrimination, the perirhinal/entorhinal cortex correlated more strongly than the hippocampus; no other isocortical regions were strongly associated with performance. Convergent results were found for immediate and delayed trials of other memory tests. The current results suggest that a richer understanding of the memory deficits in AD can be gained by examining multiple measures, which tap different aspects of memory function. Furthermore, the present findings are consistent with models hypothesizing different stages of verbal list learning map onto dissociable brain regions. These data have implications for understanding the anatomic basis of processes underlying episodic memory, particularly related to a division of labor within the medial temporal lobes and within the large-scale MTL-cortical memory network.

Project description:BackgroundWe sought to determine if ripple oscillations (80-120 Hz), detected in intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) recordings of patients with epilepsy, correlate with an enhancement or disruption of verbal episodic memory encoding.MethodsWe defined ripple and spike events in depth iEEG recordings during list learning in 107 patients with focal epilepsy. We used logistic regression models (LRMs) to investigate the relationship between the occurrence of ripple and spike events during word presentation and the odds of successful word recall following a distractor epoch and included the seizure onset zone (SOZ) as a covariate in the LRMs.ResultsWe detected events during 58,312 word presentation trials from 7630 unique electrode sites. The probability of ripple on spike (RonS) events was increased in the SOZ (p < 0.04). In the left temporal neocortex, RonS events during word presentation corresponded with a decrease in the odds ratio (OR) of successful recall, however, this effect only met significance in the SOZ (OR of word recall: 0.71, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.59-0.85, n = 158 events, adaptive Hochberg, p < 0.01). Ripple on oscillation (RonO) events that occurred in the left temporal neocortex non-SOZ also correlated with decreased odds of successful recall (OR: 0.52, 95% CI: 0.34-0.80, n = 140, adaptive Hochberg, p < 0.01). Spikes and RonS that occurred during word presentation in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) correlated with the most significant decrease in the odds of successful recall, irrespective of the location of the SOZ (adaptive Hochberg, p < 0.01).ConclusionRipples and spikes generated in the left temporal neocortex are associated with impaired verbal episodic memory encoding. Although physiological and pathological ripple oscillations were not distinguished during cognitive tasks, our results show an association of undifferentiated ripples with impaired encoding. The effect was sometimes specific to regions outside the SOZ, suggesting that widespread effects of epilepsy outside the SOZ may contribute to cognitive impairment.

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The magnitude of sex differences in verbal episodic memory increases with social progress: Data from 54 countries across 40 years.

Publications

The magnitude of sex differences in verbal episodic memory increases with social progress: Data from 54 countries across 40 years.

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