Dietary flavanols improve cerebral cortical oxygenation and cognition in healthy adults

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 10; no. 1; p. 19409
• Main Authors: Gratton, Gabriele, Weaver, Samuel R, Burley, Claire V, Low, Kathy A, Maclin, Edward L, Johns, Paul W, Pham, Quang S, Lucas, Samuel J E, Fabiani, Monica, Rendeiro, Catarina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 24.11.2020; Nature Publishing Group UK; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Adult; Aging; Blindness; Cacao; Cerebral Cortex - blood supply; Cerebral Cortex - drug effects; Cerebral Cortex - metabolism; Cerebrovascular Circulation - drug effects; Cocoa; Cognition - drug effects; Cognitive ability; Dietary Supplements; Double-Blind Method; Flavonols - administration & dosage; Healthy Volunteers; Humans; Hypercapnia; Hypercapnia - diet therapy; Hypercapnia - physiopathology; Hypercapnia - psychology; Male; Middle Aged; Nitric oxide; Oxygen - metabolism; Oxygen Consumption - drug effects; Oxygenation; Oxyhemoglobins - metabolism; Vascular diseases; Young Adult; Young adults
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-76160-9

Cocoa flavanols protect humans against vascular disease, as evidenced by improvements in peripheral endothelial function, likely through nitric oxide signalling. Emerging evidence also suggests that flavanol-rich diets protect against cognitive aging, but mechanisms remain elusive. In a randomized double-blind within-subject acute study in healthy young adults, we link these two lines of research by showing, for the first time, that flavanol intake leads to faster and greater brain oxygenation responses to hypercapnia, as well as higher performance only when cognitive demand is high. Individual difference analyses further show that participants who benefit from flavanols intake during hypercapnia are also those who do so in the cognitive challenge. These data support the hypothesis that similar vascular mechanisms underlie both the peripheral and cerebral effects of flavanols. They further show the importance of studies combining physiological and graded cognitive challenges in young adults to investigate the actions of dietary flavanols on brain function.