Fig. 1

Sex moderation of diagnosis and amyloid status effects. Sex moderates effects of diagnosis and florbetapir positron emission tomography amyloid positivity (A⁺) on verbal learning (a) and marginally moderates effects on verbal delayed recall (b) and right hippocampal volume (HV; d), but it does not moderate effects on left HV (c). Specifically, learning and memory scores appear robust to A⁺ effects in women with normal cognition (NC; a, b). Women with prodromal AD (A⁺ early mild cognitive impairment [eMCI]) lose this advantage (a, b). In contrast, A⁺ impacts men’s verbal learning and memory scores comparably across NC and eMCI (a, b). Sex shows no moderating effect for left HV (c), but individuals of both sexes with eMCI show smaller left HV than individuals with NC. Sex marginally moderates the relationship of A⁺ and diagnosis with right HV, such that women with NC showed no effect of A⁺ on HV and women with prodromal AD lost that advantage in neural integrity (d). A ⁻ Florbetapir positron emission tomography amyloid negativity, AVLT Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Rey AVLT scores are group means. HV units are derived via correction for total intracranial volume