Lack of effect of short-term fasting on cognitive function.
In a study designed to assess the effects of short-term food deprivation on cognitive function, a sample of female subjects (N = 21) was tested on a number of measures of cognitive function after three levels of food deprivation (miss one meal, miss two meals or miss all food for 24 h prior to testing) and a condition in which they ate normally for 24 h prior to testing. There was found to be no significant effects of food deprivation on sustained attention, attentional focus, simple reaction time or immediate memory. However, performance on a low processing load tapping task was significantly poorer when the subjects were deprived of food for 24 h prior to testing, and heart rate was significantly higher when they were non-deprived. These results stand in contrast to the impairments in cognitive function previously found to be associated with spontaneous dieting behaviour (using essentially the same task battery).
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005215:Fasting / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology