Thinking with your gonads: testosterone and cognition

A question for your doctor. Is testosterone deprivation the cause of your memory and cognition problems? Because you lowered your cholesterol?
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661305003578

• Jeri S. Janowsky

• Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Oregon Health & Science University CR131, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR 97239, USA

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Sex hormones play a crucial role during brain development, but do they modulate or maintain cognition throughout life? Despite several million prescriptions annually for testosterone supplementation, we do not really know the answer. Here I review recent evidence that testosterone alters neural activity essential for learning and memory, and plays an important role as a neuroprotective agent in aging. In particular, testosterone deprivation is associated with poor memory in men and replacement can enhance memory and spatial cognition. However, there is little evidence that testosterone selectively affects only those cognitive domains where sex differences in performance have been found. There are also gaps in our knowledge surrounding the individual cognitive processes altered by testosterone, their neural basis, and the degree to which testosterone affects cognitive performance in women.

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 This figure from the abstract bings up even more questions for your doctor. How does cholesterol lowering drugs affect your testosterone levels and cognition?

Figure 2. Testosterone is a hormone that is metabolized from cholesterol. Thus, its production can be influenced at several metabolic steps. In addition, it can be further metabolized to form estradiol or other androgen molecules. When testosterone affects cognition, it is not known in most instances whether this is as an androgen or via its conversion to estradiol.