Functional Brain Activity Changes after 4 Weeks Supplementation with a Multi-Vitamin/Mineral Combination: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial Exploring Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials during Working Memory

Abstract

This study explored the neurocognitive effects of 4 weeks daily supplementation with a multi-vitamin and -mineral combination (MVM) in healthy adults (aged 18–40 years). Using a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled design, participants underwent assessments of brain activity using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI; n = 32, 16 females) and Steady-State Visual Evoked Potential recordings (SSVEP; n = 39, 20 females) during working memory and continuous performance tasks at baseline and following 4 weeks of active MVM treatment or placebo. There were several treatment-related effects suggestive of changes in functional brain activity associated with MVM administration. SSVEP data showed latency reductions across centro-parietal regions during the encoding period of a spatial working memory task following 4 weeks of active MVM treatment. Complementary results were observed with the fMRI data, in which a subset of those completing fMRI assessment after SSVEP assessment (n = 16) demonstrated increased BOLD response during completion of the Rapid Visual Information Processing task (RVIP) within regions of interest including bilateral parietal lobes. No treatment-related changes in fMRI data were observed in those who had not first undergone SSVEP assessment, suggesting these results may be most evident under conditions of fatigue. Performance on the working memory and continuous performance tasks did not significantly differ between treatment groups at follow-up. In addition, within the fatigued fMRI sample, increased RVIP BOLD response was correlated with the change in number of target detections as part of the RVIP task. This study provides preliminary evidence of changes in functional brain activity during working memory associated with 4 weeks of daily treatment with a multi-vitamin and -mineral combination in healthy adults, using two distinct but complementary measures of functional brain activity.

Effects ofPanax quinquefolius(American ginseng) on the steady state visually evoked potential during cognitive performance

“…Specifically, the quality and magnitude of the activation pattern, rather than the behavioural outcomes, may be differentially susceptible to change. This is consistent with previous findings using the same task following 30‐day administration of cocoa flavanols in a similar population (Camfield et al, 2012) and a 28‐day multivitamin intervention in a healthy young adult cohort (White et al, 2016).…”

“…Two cognitive tasks were completed during SSVEP recording, an AX‐CP task (AX‐CPT) and a SWM, see for details. These two tasks have been utilised in a series of recent trials investigating modulation of SSVEP responses through pharmaceutical (Silberstein, Pipingas, Farrow, Levy, & Stough, 2016) and nutraceutical interventions (Camfield et al, 2012; White et al, 2016, 2017), with the SWM task probing the specific cognitive domain previously impacted by P. quinquefolius (Scholey et al, 2010). Acquisition and pre‐processing of the SSVEP were performed according to White et al (2016; 2017).…”

“…In the latter study, neurocognitive function was co‐monitored using steady state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs) in a subset of participants. Fluctuations in SSVEP amplitude and phase induced by a diffuse visual flicker during cognitive processing have been used to study functional brain activity associated with a range of cognitive processes (Ellis, Silberstein, & Nathan, 2006; Kemp, Gray, Eide, Silberstein, & Nathan, 2002; Silberstein, Ciorciari, & Pipingas, 1995), in addition to their modulation by pharmacological and nutritional intervention (Camfield et al, 2012; White et al, 2016, 2017). Of particular relevance to the present study, reduced SSVEP amplitude and phase have been reported in prefrontal electrode sites during spatial SWM task performance in healthy adults from midlife to older age (Macpherson et al, 2014).…”

Vitamins and Minerals for Energy, Fatigue and Cognition: A Narrative Review of the Biochemical and Clinical Evidence

“…Interestingly, the same authors also reported preliminary findings suggesting that this same 4-week multiple micronutrient supplementation could induce changes in brain function, using both hemodynamic and electrophysiological assessments. During working memory tasks, the centro-parietal regions showed higher activity after multiple supplementation, especially when subjects were investigated in a situation of mental fatigue [221]. The enhanced benefit of supplementation for subjects with low vitamin status at baseline is supported, for example, by the results of a 13 years supplementation trial of B vitamins (B6 + B9 + B12) in which cognitive function was assessed in women with a high cardiovascular risk.…”

Improvement in Cognition Following Double-Blind Randomized Micronutrient Interventions in the General Population

“…Our 14-day food capture window was twice the length of most studies—that use a much smaller timeframe to capture general eating habits (typically 3–7 days, Hughes et al, 2012; White et al, 2016; Zweers et al, 2018), although our methods are similar in other respects. There was no need to repeat this, unlike physiological measures because participants were instructed to follow their normal dietary pattern (indeed this instruction was likely superfluous because it is incredibly difficult to get people to change their eating habits).…”