The hippocampus is an important area of the brain for forming memories.

The volume of most subregions of the hippocampus begins to decrease around 50 years of age.

Females exhibited a decline in hippocampal volume earlier in life compared to males.

Sex differences are important to consider in aging research.

This post was co-authored by Jillian H. Graham, B.S., Justin M. Palmer, Ph.D., & Scott M. Hayes, Ph.D.

What is the hippocampus?

The hippocampus is an area of the brain that is central to forming some of our most important memories that come from our daily experiences. These memories range from landmark life events, such as your best friend’s wedding ceremony, to more mundane events, such as running errands around town.

The hippocampus is vulnerable to age-related structural and functional decline, which contributes to memory difficulties in older adulthood. For example, previous studies have shown that hippocampal volume declines with age (Wolf et al., 2015), which may be associated with greater difficulties on memory tasks (O’Shea et al., 2016). The hippocampus is also one of the first regions to accumulate Alzheimer’s disease pathology, which can further exacerbate hippocampal decline and cognitive impairment.

Additionally, sex differences in hippocampal volumes are often not examined, leading to a lack of understanding of how these structures may vary by biological sex. This lack of knowledge is important to consider given that females are at a higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease compared to males. Therefore, understanding potential sex differences in hippocampal volume may have implications for early detection and intervention of age-related cognitive decline or Alzheimer’s disease.

Segmenting the hippocampus

The........

© Psychology Today