a The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC), Department of Pediatrics , Albert Einstein College of Medicine & Montefiore Medical Center , Bronx , NY 10461 , USA.
b The Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience , Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Rose F. Kennedy Center , Bronx , NY 10461 , USA.
Nutr Neurosci. 2018 Dec;21(10):729-743. doi: 10.1080/1028415X.2017.1347998. Epub 2017 Jul 17.
At present, the impact of macronutrient composition and nutrient intake on sustained attention in adults is unclear, although some prior work suggests that nutritive interventions that engender slow, steady glucose availability support sustained attention after consumption. A separate line of evidence suggests that nutrient consumption may alter electroencephalographic markers of neurophysiological activity, including neural oscillations in the alpha-band (8-14 Hz), which are known to be richly interconnected with the allocation of attention. It is here investigated whether morning ingestion of foodstuffs with differing macronutrient compositions might differentially impact the allocation of sustained attention throughout the day as indexed by both behavior and the deployment of attention-related alpha-band activity.
Twenty-four adult participants were recruited into a three-day study with a cross-over design that employed a previously validated sustained attention task (the Spatial CTET). On each experimental day, subjects consumed one of three breakfasts with differing carbohydrate availabilities (oatmeal, cornflakes, and water) and completed blocks of the Spatial CTET throughout the morning while behavioral performance, subjective metrics of hunger/fullness, and electroencephalographic (EEG) measurements of alpha oscillatory activity were recorded.
Although behavior and electrophysiological metrics changed over the course of the day, no differences in their trajectories were observed as a function of breakfast condition. However, subjective metrics of hunger/fullness revealed that caloric interventions (oatmeal and cornflakes) reduced hunger across the experimental day with respect to the non-caloric, volume-matched control (water). Yet, no differences in hunger/fullness were observed between the oatmeal and cornflakes interventions.
Observation of a relationship between macronutrient intervention and sustained attention (if one exists) will require further standardization of empirical investigations to aid in the synthesis and replicability of results. In addition, continued implementation of neurophysiological markers in this domain is encouraged, as they often produce nuanced insight into cognition even in the absence of overt behavioral changes. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03169283.
目前，尚不清楚宏量营养素组成和营养素摄入对成年人持续注意力的影响，尽管有一些先前的研究表明，促进缓慢、稳定葡萄糖供应的营养干预措施在摄入后支持持续注意力。另一条证据表明，营养素的消耗可能会改变神经生理活动的脑电图标记物，包括 alpha 波段（8-14 Hz）的神经振荡，已知这些标记物与注意力的分配有丰富的相互联系。在此研究中，我们调查了在一天中，不同宏量营养素组成的食物摄入是否会以行为和注意力相关的 alpha 波段活动的部署为指标，对持续注意力的分配产生不同的影响。
24 名成年参与者被招募到一项具有交叉设计的为期三天的研究中，该研究采用了先前验证过的持续注意力任务（空间 CTET）。在每个实验日，参与者摄入三种早餐中的一种，这些早餐的碳水化合物可利用性不同（燕麦片、玉米片和水），并在上午完成空间 CTET 测试，同时记录行为表现、饥饿/饱腹感的主观指标以及脑电图（EEG）测量的 alpha 振荡活动。
尽管行为和生理指标在一天中发生了变化，但早餐条件并没有影响它们的轨迹。然而，饥饿/饱腹感的主观指标表明，热量干预（燕麦片和玉米片）与非热量、体积匹配的对照（水）相比，降低了整个实验日的饥饿感。然而，燕麦片和玉米片干预之间的饥饿/饱腹感没有差异。
如果存在宏量营养素干预和持续注意力之间的关系，需要进一步规范实证研究，以帮助综合和复制结果。此外，鼓励在该领域继续实施神经生理标记物，因为即使没有明显的行为变化，它们也常常能对认知产生细微的洞察力。ClinicalTrials.gov 标识符：NCT03169283。
