How Men Can Help Women Improve Their Memory
How Men Can Help Women Improve Their Memory
Aug. 24, 2000 -- It's nowhere near ready to be marketed as a cure for the "I can't find my keys syndrome." But new research suggests that even a single dose of the male hormone, testosterone, improves a certain type of memory in women.
The study, published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, tested a group of 15 young women to see how they did on a set of computerized "object-location" tests -- with and without a dose of testosterone. The researchers found the male hormone had no important effect on two simpler tests -- but slightly improved performance on a third, more complicated one, which may indicate that testosterone activates certain aspects of thought function.
Study author Albert Postma, PhD, explains that the test was very specific. The only improvement seen was that the women were able to remember the location of objects, even after having a three-minute break. "So I wouldn't say you'd be better able to recall [things such as] words with testosterone ... We had a task in which subjects studied a number of objects shown on a computer screen -- and afterwards they were asked to reposition those objects," says Postma, who is senior lecturer at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
The objects were first seen inside a box on the computer screen, then they vanished and reappeared in a line across the top. The women then manipulated the objects back to their original positions by touching the screen. This exercise was performed twice -- with a three-minute delay between each session. "We asked subjects to do it immediately," Postma says, "and we did not find an effect then. But there was improvement after waiting three minutes."
Not much though: "It seems to be the improvement is very small ... It's not that the subjects improved enormously," he says. "Nonetheless, the effect might be worthwhile to think about. It might be that your ability to remember where things were is connected to testosterone." Postma suggests different parts of the brain may, to some extent, influence immediate memory and delayed memory.
Pauline Maki, PhD, an investigator with the National Institute on Aging, says, "The area of research is important because with increasing frequency women are being offered testosterone therapy along with estrogen [for sexual problems]. And the whole issue of testosterone and [thinking] function is important because women develop age-related [thought and memory] changes."
How Men Can Help Women Improve Their Memory
Aug. 24, 2000 -- It's nowhere near ready to be marketed as a cure for the "I can't find my keys syndrome." But new research suggests that even a single dose of the male hormone, testosterone, improves a certain type of memory in women.
The study, published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, tested a group of 15 young women to see how they did on a set of computerized "object-location" tests -- with and without a dose of testosterone. The researchers found the male hormone had no important effect on two simpler tests -- but slightly improved performance on a third, more complicated one, which may indicate that testosterone activates certain aspects of thought function.
Study author Albert Postma, PhD, explains that the test was very specific. The only improvement seen was that the women were able to remember the location of objects, even after having a three-minute break. "So I wouldn't say you'd be better able to recall [things such as] words with testosterone ... We had a task in which subjects studied a number of objects shown on a computer screen -- and afterwards they were asked to reposition those objects," says Postma, who is senior lecturer at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
The objects were first seen inside a box on the computer screen, then they vanished and reappeared in a line across the top. The women then manipulated the objects back to their original positions by touching the screen. This exercise was performed twice -- with a three-minute delay between each session. "We asked subjects to do it immediately," Postma says, "and we did not find an effect then. But there was improvement after waiting three minutes."
Not much though: "It seems to be the improvement is very small ... It's not that the subjects improved enormously," he says. "Nonetheless, the effect might be worthwhile to think about. It might be that your ability to remember where things were is connected to testosterone." Postma suggests different parts of the brain may, to some extent, influence immediate memory and delayed memory.
Pauline Maki, PhD, an investigator with the National Institute on Aging, says, "The area of research is important because with increasing frequency women are being offered testosterone therapy along with estrogen [for sexual problems]. And the whole issue of testosterone and [thinking] function is important because women develop age-related [thought and memory] changes."
