title: Effect of Ovarian Hormone Therapy on Cognition in the Aged Female Rhesus Macaque.
abstract: Studies of the effect of hormone therapy on cognitive function in menopausal women have been equivocal, in part due to differences in the type and timing of hormone treatment. Here we cognitively tested aged female rhesus macaques on (1) the delayed response task of spatial working memory, (2) a visuospatial attention task that measured spatially and temporally cued reaction times, and (3) a simple reaction time task as a control for motor speed. After task acquisition, animals were ovariectomized (OVX). Their performance was compared with intact controls for 2 months, at which time no group differences were found. The OVX animals were then assigned to treatment with either a subcutaneous sham implant (OVX), 17-β estradiol (E) implant (OVX+E) or E implant plus cyclic oral progesterone (OVX+EP). All groups were then tested repeatedly over 12 months. The OVX+E animals performed significantly better on the delayed response task than all of the other groups for much of the 12 month testing period. The OVX+EP animals also showed improved performance in the delayed response task, but only at 30 s delays and with performance levels below that of OVX+E animals. The OVX+E animals also performed significantly better in the visuospatial attention task, particularly in the most challenging invalid cue condition; this difference also was maintained across the 12 month testing period. Simple reaction time was not affected by hormonal manipulation. These data demonstrate that chronic, continuous administration of E can exert multiple beneficial cognitive effects in aged, OVX rhesus macaque females.
  
  
  
  Hormone therapy after menopause is controversial. We tested the effects of hormone replacement in aged rhesus macaques, soon after surgically-induced menopause [ovariectomy (OVX)], on tests of memory and attention. Untreated ovarian-intact and OVX animals were compared with OVX animals receiving estradiol (E) alone or E with progesterone (P). E was administered in a continuous fashion via subcutaneous implant, whereas P was administered orally in a cyclic fashion. On both tests, E-treated animals performed better than the other 3 experimental groups across 1 year of treatment. Thus, in this monkey model, chronic E administered soon after the loss of ovarian hormones had long-term benefits for cognitive function.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuroscience, Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health and Science University, Beaverton, Oregon 97006-3448.
authors.forename: Steven G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Kohama
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuroscience, Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health and Science University, Beaverton, Oregon 97006-3448.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5552-7614
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Renner
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuroscience, Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health and Science University, Beaverton, Oregon 97006-3448.
authors.forename: Noelle
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Landauer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322.
authors.forename: Alison R
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1821-8193
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuroscience, Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health and Science University, Beaverton, Oregon 97006-3448, Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon 97239-3098.
authors.forename: Henryk F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Urbanski
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Oregon Health and Science University and Portland State University, Portland, Oregon 97239-3098, and.
authors.forename: Byung
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3516-7516
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy and the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157-1010.
authors.forename: Mary Lou
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Voytko
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuroscience, Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health and Science University, Beaverton, Oregon 97006-3448, neuringe@ohsu.edu.
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neuringer
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects*; D003463:Cues; D004958:Estradiol / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000187:drug effects; D010052:Ovariectomy; D011374:Progesterone / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D065852:Spatial Memory / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D011374:Progesterone; D004958:Estradiol
keywords: aging; cognition; hormones