Dietary interventions have emerged as effective environmental inducers of brain plasticity. Among these dietary interventions, we here highlight the impact of caloric restriction (CR: a consistent reduction of total daily food intake), intermittent fasting (IF, every-other-day feeding), and diet supplementation with polyphenols and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) on markers of brain plasticity in animal studies. Moreover, we also discuss epidemiological and intervention studies reporting the effects of CR, IF and dietary polyphenols and PUFAs on learning, memory, and mood. In particular, we evaluate the gap in mechanistic understanding between recent findings from animal studies and those human studies reporting that these dietary factors can benefit cognition, mood, and anxiety, aging, and Alzheimer's disease—with focus on the enhancement of structural and functional plasticity markers in the hippocampus, such as increased expression of neurotrophic factors, synaptic function and adult neurogenesis. Lastly, we discuss some of the obstacles to harnessing the promising effects of diet on brain plasticity in animal studies into effective recommendations and interventions to promote healthy brain function in humans. Together, these data reinforce the important translational concept that diet, a modifiable lifestyle factor, holds the ability to modulate brain health and function.

Although it has been long believed that new neurons were only generated during development, there is now growing evidence indicating that at least two regions in the brain are capable of continuously generating functional neurons: the subventricular zone and the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) is a widely observed phenomenon verified in different adult mammalian species including humans. Factors such as environmental enrichment, voluntary exercise, and diet have been linked to increased levels of AHN. Conversely, aging, stress, anxiety and depression have been suggested to hinder it. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects are still unclear and yet to be determined. In this paper, we discuss some recent findings addressing the effects of different dietary polyphenols on hippocampal cell proliferation and differentiation, models of anxiety, and depression as well as some proposed molecular mechanisms underlying those effects with particular focus on those related to AHN. As a whole, dietary polyphenols seem to exert positive effects on anxiety and depression, possibly in part via regulation of AHN. Studies on the effects of dietary polyphenols on behaviour and AHN may play an important role in the approach to use diet as part of the therapeutic interventions for mental-health-related conditions.

Daily calorie restriction (CR) and intermittent fasting (IF) enhance longevity and cognition but the effects and mechanisms that differentiate these two paradigms are unknown. We examined whether IF in the form of every-other-day feeding enhances cognition and adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) when compared to a matched 10% daily CR intake and ad libitum conditions. After 3 months under IF, female C57BL6 mice exhibited improved long-term memory retention. IF increased the number of BrdU-labeled cells and neuroblasts in the hippocampus, and microarray analysis revealed that the longevity gene Klotho (Kl) was upregulated in the hippocampus by IF only. Furthermore, we found that downregulating Kl in human hippocampal progenitor cells led to decreased neurogenesis, whereas Kl overexpression increased neurogenesis. Finally, histological analysis of Kl knockout mice brains revealed that Kl is required for AHN, particularly in the dorsal hippocampus. These data suggest that IF is superior to 10% CR in enhancing memory and identifies Kl as a novel candidate molecule that regulates the effects of IF on cognition likely via AHN enhancement.

Thanks to brain imaging great advances have been made concerning the comprehension of neural substrates related to panic disorder (PD). This article aims to: review the recent functional MRI (fMRI) studies concerning PD; correlate the PD fMRI neurobiological findings with the fear neurocircuitry hypothesis; discuss the fear neurocircuitry hypothesis and link it to cognitive-behavior therapy findings; and comment on fMRI study limitations and suggest methodological changes for future research. As a whole, there is increasing evidence that brain structures such as the prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex and limbic areas (hippocampus and amygdala) might play a major role in the panic response.