About
Return to series page to register.

This presentation highlights the state of play in the literature with regard to sex differences in prevalence and incidence rates of dementia. Dr. Buckley touches upon the well characterized issue of women being underdiagnosed with dementia due to the fact that they perform much better than men on many neuropsychological tests. She refers to her work that has shown consistently, and across many independent cohorts, that women show elevated levels of tauopathy in the brain relative to men. After demonstrating these sex differences in these clinical AD-related outcomes, she turns to the question of whether they might be driven by sex steroid hormones or the X chromosome. She ends the talk by touching upon the reasons why we care about sex differences, particularly from a clinical trials perspective. In addition, she presents her working framework for where she thinks the field stands and what gaps remain in the literature.

Key Topics:

  • The extent to which sex differences exist in Alzheimer’s disease risk

  • How sex steroid hormones and the X chromosome play a role in moderating this risk

  • Understand the importance of sex disaggregating findings, both in observational research and also in clinical trials

Presenter
1718976512-ce03d6c5ba6851fa
Rachel Buckley, PhD
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Buckley is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a recipient of an NIH K99/R00, an NIH DP2 New Innovator Award and an NIH R01. Her research interests lie in sex differences in risk for Alzheimer’s disease and seeking to optimize women’s brain health.