Rahe Julia, Liesk Jennifer, Rosen Jan B, Petrelli Annette, Kaesberg Stephanie, Onur Oezguer A, Kessler Josef, Fink Gereon R, Kalbe Elke
a Institute of Gerontology & Center for Neuropsychological Diagnostics and Intervention (CeNDI) , University of Vechta , Vechta , Germany.
Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2015;22(5):620-38. doi: 10.1080/13825585.2015.1028883. Epub 2015 Mar 30.
Cognitive training has been shown to be effective in improving cognitive functions in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). However, data on factors that may influence training gains including sociodemographic variables such as sex or age is rare. In this study, the impact of sex on cognitive training effects was examined in N = 32 age- and education-matched female (n = 16) and male (n = 16) amnestic MCI patients (total sample: age M = 74.97, SD = 5.21; education M = 13.50, SD = 3.11). Patients participated in a six-week multidomain cognitive training program including 12 sessions each 90 min twice weekly in mixed groups with both women and men. Various cognitive domains were assessed before and after the intervention. Despite comparable baseline performance in women and men, we found significant interaction effects Time × Sex in immediate (p = .04) and delayed verbal episodic memory (p= .045) as well as in working memory (p = .042) favoring the female MCI patients. In contrast, the overall analyses with the total sample did not reveal any significant within-subject effects Time. In conclusion, our results give preliminary evidence for stronger cognitive training improvements of female compared to male MCI patients. More generally, they emphasize the importance of sex-sensitive evaluations of cognitive training effects. Possible underlying mechanisms of the found sex differences are discussed and directions for future research are given.
认知训练已被证明对改善轻度认知障碍（MCI）患者的认知功能有效。然而，关于可能影响训练效果的因素的数据却很少，包括社会人口统计学变量，如性别或年龄。在本研究中，对32名年龄和教育程度匹配的遗忘型MCI患者（总样本：年龄M = 74.97，标准差 = 5.21；教育程度M = 13.50，标准差 = 3.11）进行了研究，其中女性（n = 16）和男性（n = 16）各16名，以检验性别对认知训练效果的影响。患者参加了一个为期六周的多领域认知训练项目，包括12节课程，每节90分钟，每周两次，男女混合分组。在干预前后对各种认知领域进行了评估。尽管男女在基线表现上相当，但我们发现，在即时（p = .04）和延迟言语情景记忆（p = .045）以及工作记忆（p = .042）方面，时间×性别的交互作用显著，有利于女性MCI患者。相比之下，对总样本的总体分析未发现任何显著的时间内效应。总之，我们的结果初步证明，与男性MCI患者相比，女性的认知训练改善更强。更普遍地说，它们强调了对认知训练效果进行性别敏感评估的重要性。讨论了所发现的性别差异可能的潜在机制，并给出了未来研究的方向。
