Associations between circulating sex steroid hormones and cognition in normal elderly women

Objective: To provide exploratory analyses of associations between levels o f several sex hormones and cognitive performance in elderly women. Backgrou nd: Sex steroid hormones are implicated in the cognitive processes of the a dult brain. Comparing cognitive performance across or between conditions as sociated with different hormone levels, such as phases of the menstrual cyc le, surgical menopause, and estrogen replacement therapy suggests condition s with higher levels of estrogen are associated with better verbal memory a nd possibly worse visuospatial ability. Method: The authors measured circul ating sex hormone levels in 39 highly educated, nondemented, predominantly white elderly women. Levels were correlated with neuropsychological perform ance, controlling for age, education, frequency of prior testing, use of es trogen replacement, and depression. Results, High estradiol levels were ass ociated with better delayed verbal memory and retrieval efficiency, whereas low levels were associated with better immediate and delayed visual memory . Levels of testosterone were related positively to verbal fluency. Levels of progesterone and androstenedione were unrelated to cognitive performance . Conclusions: Both estrogen and testosterone showed associations with cogn itive performance. Estrogen may enhance, and depress, specific cognitive sk ills.