How junk food impairs memory in a young brain

An American study from the University of Southern California observed this.Memory damage in young people would be irreversible.

• An American study strengthens the correlation between diet and the brain, particularly regarding memory function.
• In in vivo experiments, researchers have observed that a junk food diet impairs the ability to remember.
• These negative effects are irreversible despite adopting a healthy diet.

A diet rich in added fats and sugars could compromise the long-term Memory function in adolescents.This is what a study says university of Southern California which observed the association with in vivo studies and which was published in the scientific journal Brain, behavior and immunity.

The study reinforces the existence of a connection between the intestine and the brain and Scott Kanoski, professor of biological sciences at USC, emphasizes:“What we have observed, also in other works, is that these disorders do not disappear.Even starting a healthy diet, the negative effects are also recorded in adulthood."

How the Western Diet Affects Memory

The idea for the study came from previous work that had shown a link between a poor diet and the disease Alzheimer's.People who suffer from this disease tend to have lower levels of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, essential for memory and functions such as learning, attention, arousal and involuntary muscle movement.

The researchers then wondered what this could mean for the young that follow one western diet, particularly duringadolescence, when their brain goes through a significant phase of development.With in vivo experiments on rats, scholars have observed how, assuming junk food, there were some alterations of acetylcholine signals in the hippocampus causing poor performance on tests memory.

Irreversible damage in adolescents

“Some things that may be more easily reversible during adulthood are less reversible when they occur in childhood,” the researchers explained.While, in fact, the damage to intestinal microbiota can be repaired, the involvement of a neurotransmitter useful for remembering events means that the damage caused by nutrition at a young age is irreversible except with the administration of specific drugs.Further studies are needed to understand how the negative effects of diet on the brain could be reversed.