In females, the lack of significant associations between autophagy markers (LC3B-II, SQSTM1) and behavior suggests that mitochondrial health may play a more dominant role in determining cognitive outcomes, with a negative correlation observed between NOR performance and mitochondrial number in the cortex, and a positive correlation with mitophagosome number, indicating impaired mitochondrial turnover as a possible contributor to cognitive decline in AD. The gene discussed is SQSTM1; the disease is Alzheimer disease.