Bovier Emily R, Renzi Lisa M, Hammond Billy R
Vision Sciences and Human Biofactors Laboratories, Department of Psychology, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America.
Vision Sciences and Human Biofactors Laboratories, Department of Psychology, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America; Abbott Nutrition, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2014 Sep 24;9(9):e108178. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108178. eCollection 2014.
Lutein and zeaxanthin are major carotenoids in the eye but are also found in post-receptoral visual pathways. It has been hypothesized that these pigments influence the processing of visual signals within and post-retina, and that increasing lutein and zeaxanthin levels within the visual system will lead to increased visual processing speeds. To test this, we measured macular pigment density (as a biomarker of lutein and zeaxanthin levels in brain), critical flicker fusion (CFF) thresholds, and visual motor reaction time in young healthy subjects (n = 92). Changes in these outcome variables were also assessed after four months of supplementation with either placebo (n = 10), zeaxanthin only (20 mg/day; n = 29) or a mixed formulation containing 26 mg/day zeaxanthin, 8 mg/day lutein, and 190 mg/day mixed omega-3 fatty acids (n = 25). Significant correlations were found between retinal lutein and zeaxanthin (macular pigment) and CFF thresholds (p<0.01) and visual motor performance (overall p<0.01). Supplementation with zeaxanthin and the mixed formulation (considered together) produced significant (p<0.01) increases in CFF thresholds (∼12%) and visual motor reaction time (∼10%) compared to placebo. In general, increasing macular pigment density through supplementation (average increase of about 0.09 log units) resulted in significant improvements in visual processing speed, even when testing young, healthy individuals who tend to be at peak efficiency.
叶黄素和玉米黄质是眼睛中的主要类胡萝卜素，但在视网膜后视觉通路中也有发现。据推测，这些色素会影响视网膜内和视网膜后的视觉信号处理，并且视觉系统中叶黄素和玉米黄质水平的增加将导致视觉处理速度提高。为了验证这一点，我们测量了年轻健康受试者（n = 92）的黄斑色素密度（作为大脑中叶黄素和玉米黄质水平的生物标志物）、临界闪烁融合（CFF）阈值和视觉运动反应时间。在分别补充安慰剂（n = 10）、仅补充玉米黄质（20毫克/天；n = 29）或含有26毫克/天玉米黄质、8毫克/天叶黄素和190毫克/天混合ω-3脂肪酸的混合制剂（n = 25）四个月后，还评估了这些结果变量的变化。视网膜叶黄素和玉米黄质（黄斑色素）与CFF阈值（p<0.01）和视觉运动表现（总体p<0.01）之间存在显著相关性。与安慰剂相比，补充玉米黄质和混合制剂（综合考虑）使CFF阈值显著提高（p<0.01）（约12%），视觉运动反应时间显著提高（约10%）。一般来说，通过补充剂增加黄斑色素密度（平均增加约0.09对数单位）会导致视觉处理速度显著提高，即使是对通常处于效率峰值的年轻健康个体进行测试时也是如此。
