Grant: CIHR Strategic Master's Award - Sex and Gender in Health Research

Midlife, defined as ages 40 to 65, is a critical period for brain health. During midlife, females report difficulties in their ability to plan and switch between tasks in their daily lives, skills that are involved in the brain known as executive functioning. For females with ovaries, midlife is also when they experience the menopause transition, eventually leading to perimenopause, and postmenopause. Two-thirds of perimenopausal females report difficulties with memory and planning in their daily routines. Experiencing difficulties with executive function in midlife females may be due to the accumulation of life stressors, known as cumulative stress. Executive functioning depends on the health of the prefrontal cortex, a brain region involved in higher-level actions such as planning and task switching. Therefore, cumulative stress may negatively influence executive functioning during midlife for females. Another factor may be the amount of neural resources (i.e., brain reserve) available in the brain. Brain reserve may explain why some females at midlife experience executive function difficulties during perimenopause while others do not. This research has three objectives. First, is to explore associations between cumulative stress and executive functioning in middle-aged (40-65 years old) premenopausal and perimenopausal females. Second, is to determine whether the association between cumulative stress and executive function differs between premenopausal and perimenopausal females. Third, is to determine if higher prefrontal cortex volume (a measure of brain reserve) serves as a protective factor, attenuating the negative impact of cumulative stress on executive function. During the menopause transition, 60% of females begin to notice difficulties in their ability to plan and switch between tasks daily, yet we do not fully understand why this occurs. This research will reveal risk and protective factors for female brain health at midlife.