Taken together, it may be that physiological and molecular mechanisms such as attenuated brain atrophy, the neuroprotective effect of estrogen in females with a history of estrogen supplementation or therapy, and higher levels of circulating neurotrophins critical to brain function may help explain the greater MoCA scores observed among older females across all levels of walking function in our adjusted model analyses. This evidence concerns the gene BDNF and Brain atrophy.