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Fasting and cognition in well- and undernourished schoolchildren: a review of three experimental studies
E Pollitt1, S Cueto, E R Jacoby
1Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, and Program in International Nutrition, University of California Davis, 95616, USA. epollitt@ucdavis.edu
Insights
Fasting impacts children's cognitive functions. An overnight and morning fast negatively affected attention and memory recall in 9-11-year-old children, especially those at nutritional risk.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Cognitive Psychology
- Human Physiology
Background:
- Fasting's effects on cognitive function are not fully understood in children.
- Nutritional status may influence the impact of fasting on cognitive performance.
- Previous research has not extensively examined combined overnight and morning fasting in this age group.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of an overnight and morning fast on attention and memory in children aged 9-11.
- To compare these effects between well-nourished children and those at nutritional risk.
- To explore the underlying physiological mechanisms, such as metabolic stress and glucose regulation.
Main Methods:
- Three crossover design experiments involving 9-11-year-old children.
- Controlled intake and activity levels within a research center setting.
- Cognitive assessments of working memory recall and visual stimulus discrimination after fasting or non-fasting conditions.
Main Results:
- Fasting led to slower stimulus discrimination and increased errors.
- Memory recall was significantly slower following fasting periods.
- These effects were more pronounced in children identified as being at nutritional risk.
Conclusions:
- Overnight and morning fasting impairs cognitive functions like attention and memory in children.
- Nutritional risk exacerbates the negative cognitive consequences of fasting.
- Metabolic stress, aimed at maintaining glucose levels, likely underlies these observed cognitive deficits.
Abstract:
This paper reviews three experiments on the effects of an overnight and morning fast on attention and memory processes among 9-11-y-old children. Two of the experiments focused on middle-class, well-nourished boys and girls in the United States: the third involved boys from low-income families with and without nutritional risk in Huaraz, Peru. All experiments used the same crossover design and followed similar experimental procedures to control the subjects' intakes and motor activity during the study period. The children were admitted to a research center on two different evenings, approximately 7 d apart. After arrival the children ate dinner, played table games or watched television, and went to bed. They were awakened at 0730 and, by design, were either served breakfast (approximately 2301 kJ) or not. At 1100 they took psychologic tests that assessed recall from working memory and competence in discriminating visual stimuli. At 1200 the children were discharged. The consequences of the overnight and morning fast, particularly among the children who were nutritionally at risk, included slower stimulus discrimination, increased errors, and slower memory recall. We propose that these alterations result from a state of metabolic stress in which homeostatic mechanisms work to maintain circulating glucose concentrations.