Women with Alzheimer’s show worse mental deterioration than men with the disease, even when at the same stage of the condition, according to researchers from the University of Hertfordshire.

In the paper published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, the researchers discovered that men with Alzheimer’s consistently and significantly performed better than women with the disease across the five cognitive areas they examined. Most remarkably, the verbal skills of women with Alzheimer’s are worse when compared to men with the disease, which is a striking difference to the profile for the healthy population where females have a distinct advantage.