Assessing causality in the association between neurocognitive gains and fasting

M.H. AlSheikh, R.S. AlAtrash, K.A. Aldajani, R.Y. Alkhamis, M.S. Alnamlah, S.A. Alhawaj, O. Ahmed, R. Albaradie, S. Bashir

Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia. shahidbpk13@gmail.com

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• Nutrition
• Psychology

Fasting is associated with improvements in cognitive function, and triggers weight loss in human and animal models. In recent years, the connection between fasting, brain health, and cognitive function has increasingly proven deserving of attention from researchers. The objective of this review work is to highlight evidence supporting a positive association between fasting and enhanced cognition.

We looked at the following database sources “The Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Google Scholar” for present review article. All the studies based on the key words “impact of fasting”, or “cognitive function” or “brain stimulation”.

Much of this evidence demonstrates that fasting results in enhanced performance in cognitive tests of memory and visuospatial processing, which rely heavily on hippocampal function. The mechanisms responsible for the cognitive improvements associated with fasting are not fully understood, although current evidence suggests neuroplasticity plays an important role.

Maintaining the health and the functionality of neurologically and cognitively impaired individuals can be extremely costly. Higher life expectancy and ageing populations globally is anticipated to increase the prevalence of many non-communicable, chronic, progressive conditions including neurological disorders.

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