http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661305003578
- Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Oregon Health & Science University CR131, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR 97239, USA
Sex
hormones play a crucial role during brain development, but do they
modulate or maintain cognition throughout life? Despite several million
prescriptions annually for testosterone supplementation, we do not
really know the answer. Here I review recent evidence that testosterone
alters neural activity essential for learning and memory, and plays an
important role as a neuroprotective agent in aging. In particular,
testosterone deprivation is associated with poor memory in men and
replacement can enhance memory and spatial cognition. However, there is
little evidence that testosterone selectively affects only those
cognitive domains where sex differences in performance have been found.
There are also gaps in our knowledge surrounding the individual
cognitive processes altered by testosterone, their neural basis, and the
degree to which testosterone affects cognitive performance in women.
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Figure 2. Testosterone is a hormone that is metabolized from
cholesterol. Thus, its production can be influenced at several
metabolic steps. In addition, it can be further metabolized to form
estradiol or other androgen molecules. When testosterone affects
cognition, it is not known in most instances whether this is as an
androgen or via its conversion to estradiol.
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