Event‐related potential differences in children supplemented with long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids during infancy

Abstract

Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) have been shown to be necessary for early retinal and brain development, but long-term cognitive benefits of LCPUFA in infancy have not been definitively established. The present study sought to determine whether LCPUFA supplementation during the first year of life would result in group differences in behavior and event-related potentials (ERPs) while performing a task requiring response inhibition (Go/No-Go) at 5.5 years of age. As newborns, 69 children were randomly assigned to infant formulas containing either no LCPUFA (control) or formula with 0.64% of total fatty acids as arachidonic acid (ARA; 20:4n6) and various concentrations of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n3) (0.32%, 0.64% or 0.96%) for the first 12 months of life. At 5.5 years of age, a task designed to test the ability to inhibit a prepotent response (Go/No-Go) was administered, yielding both event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral data. Behavioral measures did not differentiate between groups, although reaction times of supplemented children were marginally faster. Unsupplemented children had lower P2 amplitude than supplemented children to both Go and No-Go conditions. N2 amplitude was significantly higher on No-Go trials than Go trials, but only for supplemented children, resulting in a significant Group X Condition interaction. Topographical analysis of the ERPs revealed that the LCPUFA-supplemented group developed a novel period of synchronous activation (microstate) involving wider anterior brain activation around 200 ms; this microstate was not present in controls. These findings suggest that LCPUFA supplementation during the first 12 months of life exerts a developmental programming effect that is manifest in brain electrophysiology.

Long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation in the first year of life affects brain function, structure, and metabolism at age nine years

“…These results are also consistent with results of ERPs to Go/No-Go stimuli in the same cohort when they were tested at 5.5 years of age (Liao et al, 2017). ERP responses of children in the LCPUFA-supplemented group showed the expected differences between Go and No-Go stimuli, while those in the control group did not, again reinforcing the hypothesis that attention and inhibition systems are vulnerable to early life LCPUFA insufficiency.…”

“…Additional long-term follow up studies found that early life supplementation had positive effects on several important measures of executive function during early childhood and on measures of IQ at the threshold of school age (Colombo et al, 2013). At age 5.5 years, children in the supplemented groups showed differences in brain electrophysiologic responses while performing a task requiring response inhibition (Liao et al, 2017). These studies established that manipulation of the diet in the first year of life had a long-term effect on cognitive and brain functional outcomes, especially for mechanisms related to attention, rule learning and inhibition.…”

Developmental Outcomes at 24 Months of Age in Toddlers Supplemented with Arachidonic Acid and Docosahexaenoic Acid: Results of a Double Blind Randomized, Controlled Trial

“…Follow-up studies reported no effect of the DHA/ARA supplementation during the first year of life on neurodevelopmental outcomes at 18 months of age in infants from Dallas ( n = 117) [ 9 ] and in infants from Kansas City ( n = 81) [ 8 ]. However, the children that received the DHA/ARA supplemented formula in infancy at the Kansas City site performed better on neurodevelopmental tests in a long term follow up study at 3–5 years of age ( n = 81) [ 10 ] and showed differences in brain electrophysiology at 6 years of age ( n = 69) [ 35 ]. Similarly, a multicenter European trial of DHA and ARA supplementation of infants ( n = 147) during the first four months of life reported no effects of the supplementation on IQ at six years of age but did report that the supplemented children were faster at processing information than the unsupplemented children [ 11 ].…”

International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids 2018 Symposium: Arachidonic and Docosahexaenoic Acids in Infant Development

“…In cognitive tests where the correct response is no response, as in the no-go phase of a go/no-go test, brain electrical activity provides a way to assess inhibitory control [36]. One such measure is the event-related potential (ERP) [37].…”