{"doi":"10.3389/fnbeh.2021.695416","title":"Reduced Hippocampal GABA+ Is Associated With Poorer Episodic Memory in Healthy Older Women: A Pilot Study","abstract":"Background : The current pilot study was designed to examine the association between hippocampal γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) concentration and episodic memory in older individuals, as well as the impact of two major risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD)—female sex and Apolipoprotein ε4 ( ApoE ε4) genotype—on this relationship. Methods : Twenty healthy, community-dwelling individuals aged 50–71 (11 women) took part in the study. Episodic memory was evaluated using a Directed Forgetting task, and GABA+ was measured in the right hippocampus using a Mescher-Garwood point-resolved magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) sequence. Multiple linear regression models were used to quantify the relationship between episodic memory, GABA+, ApoE ɛ4 , and sex, controlling for age and education. Results : While GABA+ did not interact with ApoE ɛ4 carrier status to influence episodic memory ( p = 0.757), the relationship between GABA+ and episodic memory was moderated by sex: lower GABA+ predicted worse memory in women such that, for each standard deviation decrease in GABA+ concentration, memory scores were reduced by 11% ( p = 0.001). Conclusions : This pilot study suggests that sex, but not ApoE ɛ4 genotype, moderates the relationship between hippocampal GABA+ and episodic memory, such that women with lower GABA+ concentration show worse memory performance. These findings, which must be interpreted with caution given the small sample size, may serve as a starting point for larger studies using multimodal neuroimaging to understand the contributions of GABA metabolism to age-related memory decline.","journal":"Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience","year":2021,"id":179720,"datarank":0.44166584687496613,"base_score":2.9444389791664403,"endowment":2.9444389791664403,"self_citation_contribution":0.44166584687496613,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.44166584687496613,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":18,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8547,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":727460,"name":"Alexandra Ycaza Herrera","orcid":"0000-0003-3925-6196","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":449001,"name":"Kay C. Igwe","orcid":"0000-0002-9909-9930","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":728033,"name":"Lynda Klem","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":708829,"name":"Korhan Buyukturkoglu","orcid":"0000-0002-2298-1589","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337510,"name":"Andrei Irimia","orcid":"0000-0002-9254-9388","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":727461,"name":"Chen Liu","orcid":"0000-0001-5416-8464","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270524,"name":"Jia Guo","orcid":"0000-0003-4803-0279","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270469,"name":"Adam M. Brickman","orcid":"0000-0002-5125-8226","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":624130,"name":"Teal S. Eich","orcid":"0000-0003-4094-3276","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":624129,"name":"Joan Jiménez-Baladó","orcid":"0000-0003-4125-9134","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":69,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:47:48.974996Z","pmid":"34512283","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}