Feeding the brain: effect of nutrients on cognition, synaptic function, and AMPA receptors
Author
Fadó Andrés, Rut
Molins , Anna
Rojas Martín, Rocío
Casals, Nuria
Publication date
2022ISSN
2072-6643
Abstract
In recent decades, traditional eating habits have been replaced by a more globalized diet, rich in saturated fatty acids and simple sugars. Extensive evidence shows that these dietary factors contribute to cognitive health impairment as well as increase the incidence of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. However, how these nutrients modulate synaptic function and neuroplasticity is poorly understood. We review the Western, ketogenic, and paleolithic diets for their effects on cognition and correlations with synaptic changes, focusing mainly (but not exclusively) on animal model studies aimed at tracing molecular alterations that may contribute to impaired human cognition. We observe that memory and learning deficits mediated by high-fat/high-sugar diets, even over short exposure times, are associated with reduced arborization, widened synaptic cleft, narrowed post-synaptic zone, and decreased activity-dependent synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus, and also observe that these alterations correlate with deregulation of the AMPA-type glutamate ionotropic receptors (AMPARs) that are crucial to neuroplasticity. Furthermore, we explored which diet-mediated mechanisms modulate synaptic AMPARs and whether certain supplements or nutritional interventions could reverse deleterious effects, contributing to improved learning and memory in older people and patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Published version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
61 - Medical sciences
616.8 - Neurology. Neuropathology. Nervous system
Keywords
Dieta
Cognició
Memòria
Aprenentatge
Hipocamp
Funció sinàptica
Neuroplasticitat
BDNF
AMPARs
Neurodegeneració
Dieta
Cognición
Memoria
Aprendizaje
Hipocampo
Función sináptica
Neuroplasticidad
BDNF
AMPAR
Neurodegeneración
Diet
Cognition
Memory
Learning
Hippocampus
Synaptic function
Neuroplasticity
BDNF
AMPARs
Neurodegeneration
Pages
36
Publisher
MDPI
Collection
14; 19
Is part of
Nutrients
Citation
Fadó Andrés, Rut; Molins, Anna; Rojas Martín, Rocío [et al.]. Feeding the brain: effect of nutrients on cognition, synaptic function, and AMPA receptors. Nutrients, 2022, 14(19), 4137. Disponible en: <https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/19/4137>. Fecha de acceso: 8 nov. 2022. DOI: 10.3390/nu14194137
Link to the related item
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Ciències de la Salut [740]
Rights
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/