Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Diets high in saturated fat are related to worse cognitive function while those high in fish, vegetables and fruit have been associated with better cognitive function and lower dementia risk. While the precise physiological mechanisms underlying these dietary influences are not completely understood, modulation of brain-insulin activity and neuroinflammation were speculated to contribute. The results of this thesis suggest that the associations of fish, fruit, vegetables and saturated fat with cognitive function reflect adherence to a broader set of dietary patterns in older adults whose own relationship with cognition may be dependent on individual differences in environmental conditions, innate metabolism, and/or genetics. Although markers of brain insulin signaling were related to optimal cognitive function in rodent studies, diet-induced modulation of the hippocampal insulin signaling pathway was, at best, indirect. Diet-induced, peripheral insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction were closely related to cognitive deficits.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Matthew D. Parrott
Language: English
Topic: Nutritional Studies and Diet
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2755801326