Nutritional influences on cognitive function: mechanisms of susceptibility

Abstract

The impact of nutritional variation, within populations not overtly malnourished, on cognitive function and arousal is considered. The emphasis is on susceptibility to acute effects of meals and glucose loads, and chronic effects of dieting, on mental performance, and effects of cholesterol and vitamin levels on cognitive impairment. New developments in understanding dietary influences on neurohormonal systems, and their implications for cognition and affect, allow reinterpretation of both earlier and recent findings. Evidence for a detrimental effect of omitting a meal on cognitive performance remains equivocal: from the outset, idiosyncrasy has prevailed. Yet, for young and nutritionally vulnerable children, breakfast is more likely to benefit than hinder performance. For nutrient composition, despite inconsistencies, some cautious predictions can be made. Acutely, carbohydrate-rich-protein-poor meals can be sedating and anxiolytic; by comparison, protein-rich meals may be arousing, improving reaction time but also increasing unfocused vigilance. Fat-rich meals can lead to a decline in alertness, especially where they differ from habitual fat intake. These acute effects may vary with time of day and nutritional status. Chronically, protein-rich diets have been associated with decreased positive and increased negative affect relative to carbohydrate-rich diets. Probable mechanisms include diet-induced changes in monoamine, especially serotoninergic neurotransmitter activity, and functioning of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. Effects are interpreted in the context of individual traits and susceptibility to challenging, even stressful, tests of performance. Preoccupation with dieting may impair cognition by interfering with working memory capacity, independently of nutritional status. The change in cognitive performance after administration of glucose, and other foods, may depend on the level of sympathetic activation, glucocorticoid secretion, and pancreatic ␤-cell function, rather than simple fuelling

Influences of protein to energy ratios in breakfast on mood, alertness and attention in the healthy undergraduate students

“…In contrast, participants of AP session reported contrary results. Evidence indicates that macronutrient composition may influence mood by affecting the synthesis of monoamine neurotransmitters [47]. It has been suggested that carbohydrate-rich meals lead to increased fatigue and decreased alertness, whereas meals rich in protein increase alertness and decrease drowsiness [48,28].…”

Análisis del comportamiento alimentario y sus factores psicológicos en población universitaria no obesa

“…These data can rely on five-way theory (Macht, 2008), which proposes that negative emotions can increase food intake (Gibson and Green, 2002;Macht & Mueller, 2007), i.e. this theory relates lack of skills to manage emo-anales de psicología, 2018, vol.…”

“…According to the author, emotion intensity can vary an individual's diet: high intensity emotions would cause a reduction in food consumption, and moderate emotions would increase it. Likewise, several authors propose that the increase in the desire to eat in a previous restriction situation may be due to deterioration of cognitive control (Boon, Stroebe, Schut & Jansen, 1998;Lattimore & Maxwell, 2004;Wallis & Hetherington, 2004) or negative emotions themselves (Gibson & Green, 2002;Macht & Mueller, 2007).…”

Everyday happiness: Gifting and eating as everyday activities that influence general positive affect and discrete positive emotions

“…Sixth, desirable foods contain nutrients that are likely to have a direct physiological and perhaps also indirect psychological impact (Drewnowski, 1997;Leigh Gibson, & Green, 2002;Van Oudenhove et al, 2011). Whilst this nutrient-based physiological mechanism was clearly not contributing to the impact of gifting it may have played a role during the eating condition.…”