Women are less affected by memory problems upon reaching old age but are more likely to be afflicted with disabilities compared to men. Experts also claim that aging makes men’s brains decline faster than women’s brains.

Earlier reports said that there is no such thing as a female or a male brain. After observing MRI scans of the brains of more than 1,400 people, Daphna Joel, a psychologist at Israel's Tel-Aviv University, claimed that there was no single pattern that distinguishes between a male brain and a female brain, but if it exists, these are extremely rare to find. Despite this, recent researches say that aging still affect men and women differently.

For this study, the team compared two rounds of the Cognitive Function and Ageing Study conducted to 7,635 people aged 65 and above. The Daily Telegraph reports that the life expectancy of men has increased more than women's since the 1990s. An additional 4.5 years are added in the male lifespan, while 3.6 years are added in females.

Women are likely to spend an additional 7 months to cope with moderate or severe disability and 2.5 years with mild disability. Meanwhile, men only needed 1.3 years to cope with mild disability and the length to recuperate from moderate or severe disability did not change at all.

"The big unanswered question is whether our extra years of life are healthy ones and the aim of our research was to investigate how health expectancies at age 65 years and over changed between 1991 and 2011,” lead researcher Carol Jagger claims. "One possibility for the increased years women are living with mild disability might be the rise in obesity levels over the decades, but there may also be particular conditions, or just more multiple diseases, which are a feature of very old age."

"Our findings have important implications for government, employees and individuals with respect to raising the state pension age and extending working life,” Jagger notes. "It is also necessary for community care services and family carers who predominantly support those with mild to moderate disability to enable them to continue living independently."

In another study, researchers found that there are many differences in the decline rate of brain structures between men and women. Overall, men lose more grey matter faster in the parts responsible for controlling emotions and movements, according to Tech Times. Plus, men’s thalami, the part responsible for information relay, are affected more by aging compared to women.

"Strikingly, GM volume decreases faster in males than in females emphasizing the interplay between aging and gender on subcortical structures," the researchers at the University of Szeged noted. "Furthermore, the volume distribution and changes of subcortical structures have been consistently related to several neuropsychiatric disorders."

After scanning the brains of 53 men and 50 women, this study shows why men are more susceptible to neurological problems like Parkinson's disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The researchers at University of Szeged say that the study will promote better understanding of neurological disorders. The team is confident that this will contribute to better treatment and management of these diseases.

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