Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is 1.5 times more common in males than in females. While motor progression tends to be more aggressive in males, little is known about sex difference in cognitive progression. We tested the hypothesis that there are sex differences in cognitive dysfunction in non-demented PD. We evaluated 84 participants (38 females) with PD and 59 controls (27 females) for demographic variables and cognitive function, including attention, working memory, executive function, and processing speed. Multivariate ANOVA revealed no significant differences between groups for demographic variables, including age, years of education, global cogntition, daytime sleepiness, predicted premorbid IQ, UPDRS score, PD phenotype, or disease duration. For cognitive variables, we found poorer performance in males versus females with PD for measures of executive function and processing speed, but no difference between male and female controls. Specifically, PD males showed greater deficits in Verbal Fluency (category fluency, category switching, and category switching accuracy), Color Word Interference (inhibition), and speed of processing (SDMT). There were no differences in measures of working memory or attention across sex and inconsistent findings for switching. Our data indicate that males with PD have significantly greater executive and processing speed impairments compared to females despite no differences in demographic variables or other measures of disease severity. Our findings are consistent with the steeper slope of disease progression reported in males with PD.

帕金森病（PD）是一种进行性神经退行性疾病，男性的发病率是女性的1.5倍。尽管男性的运动发展趋于激进，但对认知发展中的性别差异知之甚少。我们检验了非痴呆PD认知功能障碍存在性别差异的假设。我们评估了84名参与者（38名女性）的PD和59名对照（27名女性）的人口统计学变量和认知功能，包括注意力，工作记忆，执行功能和处理速度。多元方差分析显示两组之间的人口统计学变量无显着差异，包括年龄，受教育年限，全球认知度，白天嗜睡，预测的病前智商，UPDRS评分，PD表型或疾病持续时间。对于认知变量，我们发现，在执行功能和处理速度的测量上，PD的男性和女性表现较差，但男性和女性对照之间没有差异。具体而言，PD男性在口语流利度（类别流利度，类别切换和类别切换准确性），颜色词干扰（抑制）和处理速度（SDMT）方面显示出更大的缺陷。跨性别的工作记忆或注意力的度量没有差异，并且切换的结果不一致。我们的数据表明，尽管在人口统计学变量或其他疾病严重程度方面无差异，但患有PD的男性比女性具有更大的执行和处理速度障碍。我们的发现与PD男性中疾病进展的陡峭斜率一致。