Is age kinder to females than to males?

To investigate possible gender differences in the patterns of age-cognition relations, a metaanalysis was conducted on the data from 25 studies (5,201 participants) by the second author and his collaborators. Gender and age differences consistent with prior reports were found, but there were few measures on which the age x gender interactions were significant. Although the majority of neuroimaging studies investigating gender differences in age-related atrophy and functional decline report greater age-related differences in males, the only significant interactions on the cognitive measures in this study (on measures of speed and reasoning) were in the direction of lesser age-related declines for males than for females.