In:
PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science (PLoS), Vol. 18, No. 7 ( 2023-7-20), p. e0278080-
Abstract:
The development of human brain is shaped by both genetic and environmental factors. Sex differences in cognitive function have been found in humans as a result of sexual dimorphism in neural information transmission. Numerous studies have reported the positive effects of education on cognitive functions. However, little work has investigated the effect of education on attenuating cognitive sex differences and the neural mechanisms behind it based on healthy population. In this study, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was employed to examine sex differences in cognitive function in 135 Thai healthy subjects, and label-free quantitative proteomic method and bioinformatic analysis were used to study sex-specific neurotransmission-related protein expression profiles. The results showed sex differences in two WCST sub-scores: percentage of Total corrects and Total errors in the primary education group (Bayes factor 〉 100) with males performed better, while such differences eliminated in secondary and tertiary education levels. Moreover, 11 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) between men and women (FDR 〈 0.1) were presented in both education groups, with majority of them upregulated in females. Half of those DEPs interacted directly with nAChR3, whereas the other DEPs were indirectly connected to the cholinergic pathways through interaction with estrogen. These findings provided a preliminary indication that a cholinergic-estrogen interaction relates to, and might underpin, the effect of education on attenuating cognitive sex differences in a Thai healthy population.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1932-6203
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.g001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.g002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.g003
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.g004
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.t001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.t002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.s001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.s002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.s003
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.s004
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.s005
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.r001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.r002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.r003
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.r004
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.r005
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0278080.r006
Language:
English
Publisher:
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Publication Date:
2023
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2267670-3
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