Cognitive aging in older women in same-sex and opposite-sex relationships Lead Investigator: Mateja Perovic Institution : University of Toronto E-Mail : m.perovic@mail.utoronto.ca Proposal ID : 1673 Proposal Description: The proposed project will be undertaken as a part of a larger project on minority stress and cognitive aging in sexual minority women. Women bear the greatest burden of Alzheimer?#128#153s disease (AD) and chronic stress further increases the risk of pathological aging. Past research on health outcomes in lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) cohorts shows that LGB individuals report worse mental and physical health outcomes as well as higher rates of disability than heterosexuals. The current research will examine cognitive aging in older women using the sex of their romantic partner as a proxy for sexual orientation. The goals of the proposed project are two-fold: 1) Comparing cognitive performance of healthy older women in same-sex and opposite-sex relationships and 2) Comparing cognitive, MRI, and blood biomarker data for women in same-sex and opposite-sex relationships who meet criteria for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). As past research on chronic stress in healthy aging indicates its association with lower hippocampal and prefrontal gray matter volumes, we predict that healthy older women in same-sex relationships will have lower scores on tasks that are hippocampal- and prefrontal-dependent (ie. verbal memory and executive function tasks, respectively). We also predict that while overall rates of MCI will not differ, women in same-sex relationships will have higher rates of neurodegeneration.