Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 2, 2026
Quantifying Cognitive Decrements Caused by Cranial Radiotherapy
Published on: October 18, 2011
Multimodal MRI local metrics and cognitive performance following water intake in 12-h water-restricted adults: a
Yi Zhang1, Hairong He1,2, Na Zhang1,3
1Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Background And Objective:
Hydration fluctuations affect brain structure, function, and cognition, but underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain unclear. This RCT investigated dose-dependent effects of water intake on multimodal MRI metrics and cognitive performance in young adults after 12-h water restriction.
Methods:
64 healthy university students (18-23 years) underwent 12-h water restriction and were randomized to high (500 mL), medium (200 mL), low (100 mL) water intake, or control (no water). Urine osmolality was measured pre- and post-intervention. Multimodal neuroimaging included resting-state functional MRI (fALFF, ReHo) and structural MRI (VBM), plus cognitive assessments.
Results:
Baseline measures post-restriction showed no group differences in hydration status, with 57.8% dehydrated. Post-intervention, the control group had highest urine osmolality, with significant differences among groups. The high-intake group showed most notable fALFF changes across multiple gyri vs. all groups, and higher ReHo signals in right orbitofrontal gyrus vs. low-intake/control groups. This group also had lower cerebrospinal fluid density in limbic lobe vs. medium-intake/control groups. The medium-intake group demonstrated higher gray matter VBM values in hippocampus, superior frontal gyrus, and putamen vs. high-/low-intake groups. No significant between-group cognitive differences emerged. However, within-group comparisons revealed improved symbol search across all intake groups, increased mental arithmetic span for high-/medium-intake groups, and enhanced mental arithmetic scores specifically in the high-intake group.
Conclusions:
This study preliminarily demonstrates that water intake following 12-h water restriction may improve hydration status to some extent in young adults, with observed changes in localized multimodal MRI metrics in specific brain regions and in select cognitive test scores compared with pre-intervention values; however, the correlations among these changes require further analytical validation.
Clinical Trial Registration:
https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=19279, identifier: ChiCTR-IOR-17011568.
