Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55414, USA.
Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55414, USA.
Sci Rep. 2022 Sep 8;12(1):15220. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-19279-1.
Nutrition during the first years of life has a significant impact on brain development. This study characterized differences in brain maturation from birth to 6 months of life in infant macaques fed formulas differing in content of lutein, β-carotene, and other carotenoids using Magnetic Resonance Imaging to measure functional connectivity. We observed differences in functional connectivity based on the interaction of diet, age and brain networks. Post hoc analysis revealed significant diet-specific differences between insular-opercular and somatomotor networks at 2 months of age, dorsal attention and somatomotor at 4 months of age, and within somatomotor and between somatomotor-visual and auditory-dorsal attention networks at 6 months of age. Overall, we found a larger divergence in connectivity from the breastfeeding group in infant macaques fed formula containing no supplemental carotenoids in comparison to those fed formula supplemented with carotenoids. These findings suggest that carotenoid formula supplementation influences functional brain development.
生命最初几年的营养对大脑发育有重大影响。本研究使用磁共振成像来测量功能连接，以研究从出生到 6 个月大的婴儿猕猴在不同叶黄素、β-胡萝卜素和其他类胡萝卜素含量配方喂养下大脑成熟的差异。我们观察到基于饮食、年龄和大脑网络的相互作用的功能连接差异。事后分析显示，2 个月大时，岛叶-脑岛和躯体运动网络之间、4 个月大时，背侧注意力和躯体运动网络之间以及 6 个月大时，躯体运动网络内以及躯体运动-视觉和听觉-背侧注意力网络之间存在显著的饮食特异性差异。总体而言，我们发现与母乳喂养组相比，未补充类胡萝卜素的配方喂养的猕猴的连接性差异较大，而补充类胡萝卜素的配方喂养的猕猴的连接性差异较小。这些发现表明，类胡萝卜素配方补充会影响大脑的功能发育。
