Glucose enhances newborn memory for spoken words

Abstract

The effect of a 2 g/kg glucose feed was compared with a water feed on retention of a spoken word in 2-4 days old infants in a between group randomized trial. Infants heard a word in 30-s trials until they demonstrated orientation (head turns towards the sound) and habituation. After a 100 s delay, infants who received glucose turned toward the word less often than infants receiving water (means 31.8 vs. 57.7%, t = 2.8, p < 0.01) implying that they remembered the word better. There were no differences between groups in measures of attention to or rate of learning of the word. Only infants who subsequently oriented towards a different word, indicating that they remained alert, were used in the data analysis. The results suggest that glucose enhanced memory for a spoken word in neonates.

Glucose enhancement of human memory: A comprehensive research review of the glucose memory facilitation effect

“…On the other hand, oral glucose ingestion was associated with facilitation of verbal episodic memory, relative to placebo, in the 9-10 year old participants in this study (Benton and Stevens, 2008). Finally, it is worthwhile noting that oral glucose ingestion has also been associated with memory enhancement (less frequent turning of the head towards the source of spoken words as an index of habituation) in 2-4 day old infants (Horne et al, 2006). Therefore, on the weight of the aforementioned studies, it appears that glucose ingestion reliably modulates memory under conditions of divided attention in healthy adolescents, however more work is needed to ascertain the robustness of this effect across different domains of cognitive performance in younger children.…”

Glucoregulatory and order effects on verbal episodic memory in healthy adolescents after oral glucose administration

“…Evidence for glucose enhancement of memory has previously been reported in young adults (Foster et al, 1998;Sünram-Lea et al, 2001, 2002Riby et al, 2006), elderly participants (Manning, Hall, & Gold, 1990;Parsons & Gold, 1992;Craft et al, 1994;Kaplan et al, 2000;Riby et al, 2004) and even in young infants, who demonstrate greater remembering of a vocal sound (measured via head movements toward the source of spoken words) subsequent to glucose ingestion (Horne, Barr, Valiante, Zelazo, & Young, 2006). However, whether uniform neurocognitive mechanisms are responsible for subserving the observed glucose facilitation effects across all of these age groups is unknown.…”

Glucose modulates event-related potential components of recollection and familiarity in healthy adolescents

“…Oral glucose ingestion has been observed to improve cognitive performance in individuals with memory deficits (Manning et al 1998;Pettersen and Skelton 2000;Watson and Craft 2004;Stone and Seidman 2008), the elderly (Craft et al 1994;Riby et al 2004;Riby et al in press) and healthy younger adults Foster et al 1998;Sünram-Lea et al 2001;Meikle et al 2005). Glucose has also been associated with memory improvements in children (Horne et al 2006;Benton and Stevens 2008) and adolescents (Smith and Foster 2008a;Smith and Foster 2008b). However, the specific neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the 'glucose memory facilitation effect' remain uncertain.…”