Nutritional status and cognitive functioning in a normally aging sample: a 6-y reassessment

Abstract

Associations between nutritional status and cognitive performance were examined in 137 elderly (aged 66-90 y) community residents. Participants were well-educated, adequately nourished, and free of significant cognitive impairment. Performance on cognitive tests in 1986 was related to both past (1980) and concurrent (1986) nutritional status. Several significant associations (P < 0.05) were observed between cognition and concurrent vitamin status, including better abstraction performance with higher biochemical status and dietary intake of thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and folate (rs = 0.19-0.29) and better visuospatial performance with higher plasma ascorbate (r = 0.22). Concurrent dietary protein in 1986 correlated significantly (rs = 0.25-0.26) with memory scores, and serum albumin or transferrin with memory, visuospatial, or abstraction scores (rs = 0.18-0.22). Higher past intake of vitamins E, A, B-6, and B-12 was related to better performance on visuospatial recall and/or abstraction tests (rs = 0.19-0.28). Use of self-selected vitamin supplements was associated with better performance on a difficult visuospatial test and an abstraction test. Although associations were relatively weak in this well-nourished and cognitively intact sample, the pattern of outcomes suggests some direction for further research on cognition-nutrition associations in aging.

Drosophila females trade off good nutrition with high quality oviposition sites when choosing foods

“…Importantly, we found that learning performances are also directly affected by diet, thereby adding a new dimension to the fitness landscape of D. melanogaster larvae. The effects of malnutrition on cognitive performances have long been identified in mammals (La Rue et al, 1997) and insects [e.g. honeybees (Arien et al, 2015;Wright et al, 2013) and Drosophila (Guo et al, 1996;Kawecki, 2010;Kolss and Kawecki, 2008;Shou-Zhen et al, 1997)], and may be due to modifications of the biochemical composition of the brain, developmental procedures (Heisenberg et al, 1995;Xia et al, 1997) or sensorial modalities (e.g.…”

Folate deficiency causes uracil misincorporation into human DNA and chromosome breakage: Implications for cancer and neuronal damage

“…Elderly subjects with low serum folate and B 12 concentrations have impaired spatial copying skills (52) and abstraction performance (53), and score worse on tests of nonverbal abstract thinking when compared with age-matched individuals with high serum folate and B 12 concentrations (54). Folate-deficient mice also display behavioral abnormalities (55).…”

Lack of Effect of 1 Year Intake of a High-Dose Vitamin and Mineral Supplement on Cognitive Function of Elderly Women

“…Some investigators have found that poor performance on some cognitive tests has been associated with low vitamin nutriture, e.g., low serum levels of vitamin B 12 , ascorbate, riboflavin, and folate [4][5][6]13]. In our study, cognitive malfunction was manifest even when the elderly were not vitamin deficient ( vitamin-unsupplemented group after 1 year (see Results, table 2), further deterioration of their initial cognitive malfunctioning score failed to markedly occur (table 2 -MMSE).…”