Our diet is key to staying healthy and this includes the brain. In an increasingly aging society, protecting brain health is essential to reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases that cause disability and reduce quality of life. Now, new research has identified a specific nutritional profile in participants who showed better cognitive performance, which could help develop diet-based preventive and therapeutic strategies.
The new study was carried out by a team of scientists led by Aron Barbey, director of the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior at the University of Nebraska, together with Jisheng Wu, a doctoral student at Nebraska, and Christopher Zwilling, a researcher at UIUC, who combined advanced innovations in neuroscience and nutritional science to analyze 100 cognitively healthy individuals, between 65 and 75 years old.
Participants completed a questionnaire with demographic information, body measurements, and physical activity. Blood plasma samples were collected after a fasting period to analyze nutritional biomarkers. These people also underwent cognitive evaluations and MRIs. The results revealed two types of brain aging among the participants: accelerated and slower than expected. Those with slower brain aging had a distinctive nutritional profile.
Beneficial blood biomarkers included a combination of fatty acids (vaccenic, gondoic, alpha-linolenic, eicosapentaenoic, eicosadienoic, and lignoceric acids); antioxidants and carotenoids such as cis-lutein, trans-lutein and zeaxanthin; two forms of vitamin E and choline. This profile correlates with nutrients present in the Mediterranean diet, which previous research has associated with healthy brain aging.
“We investigate specific nutritional biomarkers, such as fatty acid profiles, known in nutrition science to offer potential health benefits. This aligns with a large body of research demonstrating the positive effects of the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes foods rich in these beneficial nutrients,” said Barbey, Mildred Francis Thompson Professor of Psychology. “The current study identifies particular nutritional biomarker patterns that are promising and have favorable associations with measures of cognitive performance and brain health.”
Cognitive skills directly linked to diet and nutrition
Barbey noted that previous research on nutrition and brain aging relied primarily on food frequency questionnaires, dependent on participants’ recall. This study is one of the first and largest to combine brain imaging, blood biomarkers, and validated cognitive assessments.
“The unique aspect of our study lies in its comprehensive approach, integrating data on nutrition, cognitive function and brain imaging,” Barbey said. “This allows us to build a more robust understanding of the relationship between these factors. We go beyond simply measuring cognitive performance with traditional neuropsychological tests. Instead, we simultaneously examined brain structure, function, and metabolism, demonstrating a direct link between these brain properties and cognitive abilities. “Furthermore, we show that these brain properties are directly linked to diet and nutrition, as revealed by the patterns observed in nutritional biomarkers.”
“The current study identifies particular nutritional biomarker patterns that are promising and have favorable associations with measures of cognitive performance and brain health.”
Scientists have long studied the brain with the goal of supporting healthier aging. Although much is known about the risk factors for accelerated brain aging, less has been discovered about how to prevent cognitive decline. There’s evidence that nutrition matters, and a new study from the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign further points out how specific nutrients may play a key role in aging. healthy brain. The findings were published in Nature Publishing Group Aging.
Researchers will continue to explore this nutritional profile in relation to healthy brain aging. Barbey said the findings may in the future help develop therapies and interventions to promote brain health. “An important next step involves conducting randomized controlled trials. In these trials, we will isolate specific nutrients with favorable associations with cognitive function and brain health, and deliver them in the form of nutraceuticals,” Barbey explained. “This will allow us to definitively evaluate whether increasing levels of these specific nutritional profiles reliably leads to improvements in performance on cognitive tests and in measures of brain structure, function and metabolism.”
“There is enormous scientific and medical interest in understanding the profound impact of nutrition on brain health,” adds Barbey. “Recognizing this, the National Institutes of Health recently launched a 10-year strategic plan to significantly accelerate nutrition research. “Our work is directly aligned with this critical initiative, with the aim of contributing valuable knowledge about how dietary patterns influence brain health and cognitive function,” concludes the expert.
