Dietary flavanols improve cerebral cortical oxygenation and cognition in healthy adults

Gabriele Gratton, Samuel Weaver, Claire Burley, Kathy Low, Edward Maclin, Paul Johns, Quang Pham, Sam Lucas, Monica Fabiani, Catarina Rendeiro

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)
211 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Cocoa flavanols protect humans against vascular disease, as evidenced by improvements in peripheral endothelial function, likely through nitric oxide signalling. Emerging evidence also suggests that flavanol-rich diets protect against cognitive aging, but mechanisms remain elusive. In a randomized double-blind within-subject acute study in healthy young adults, we link these two lines of research by showing, for the first time, that flavanol intake leads to faster and greater brain oxygenation responses to hypercapnia, as well as higher performance only when cognitive demand is high. Individual difference analyses further show that participants who benefit from flavanols intake during hypercapnia are also those who do so in the cognitive challenge. These data support the hypothesis that similar vascular mechanisms underlie both the peripheral and cerebral effects of flavanols. They further show the importance of studies combining physiological and graded cognitive challenges in young adults to investigate the actions of dietary flavanols on brain function.
Original languageEnglish
Article number19409
JournalScientific Reports
Volume10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 24 Nov 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
To Birmingham-Illinois Bridge Seed Grant, 2018 (PI: CR) and to National Institute of Ageing (NIA) grants RF1 AG062666 and R01 AG059878 (PIs: GG; MF) for funding to support this work. To Barry Callebaut (Dr. Gavin Bown) for providing the high and low cocoa flavanol interventions.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).

Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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