An obesogenic refined low-fat diet disrupts attentional and behavioral control processes in a vigilance task in rats.
Diets consisting of refined foods (REF) are associated with poor physical (e.g., obesity and diabetes) and mental (e.g., depression) health and impaired cognition. Few animal studies have explored the causal links between diet processing and health. Instead, most studies focus on the role of macronutrients, especially carbohydrate and fat concurrently with how processed are the ingredients. We previously showed that a REF low fat diet (LFD) caused greater adiposity and impaired motivation compared to an unrefined control (CON) diet consisting of similar macronutrient ratios (Blaisdell et al., 2014). Here we test the hypothesis that the same REF LFD adversely affects attentional processes and behavioral control relative to the CON diet. Rats with ad libitum access to the REF diet for two months gained greater adiposity than rats consuming the CON diet. Rats then completed training on a vigilance task involving pressing the correct lever signaled by a brief visual cue whose onset varied across trials. A REF diet reduced accuracy when there was a delay between the start of the trial and cue onset. Poorer accuracy was due to increased premature responses, reflecting impulsivity, and omissions, indicating an inability to sustain attention. These results corroborate the links between consumption of refined foods, obesity, and poor cognition in humans. We discuss the possible causal models that underlie this link.
Department of Psychology, and Brain Research Institute, UCLA, United States. Electronic address: blaisdell@psych.ucla.edu.
Aaron P
AP
Blaisdell
Department of Psychology, UCLA, United States.
Traci
T
Biedermann
Department of Psychology, UCLA, United States.
Eric
E
Sosa
Department of Psychology, UCLA, United States.
Ava
A
Abuchaei
Department of Psychology, UCLA, United States.
Neveen
N
Youssef
UCLA Center for Neurovisceral Sciences and Women's Health & CURE: Digestive Diseases Research Center, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, United States.
Sylvie
S
Bradesi
D050154:Adiposity; D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D018752:Diet, Fat-Restricted / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats
ADHD; Attention; Impulsivity; Obesity; Rat; Refined diet