Nutritional neuroscience

Nutritional neuroscience is the scientific discipline that studies the effects various components of the diet such as minerals, vitamins, protein, carbohydrates, fats, dietary supplements, synthetic hormones, and food additives have on neurochemistry, neurobiology, behavior, and cognition.

Recent research on nutritional mechanisms and their effect on the brain show they are involved in almost every facet of neurological functioning including alterations in neurogenesis, neurotrophic factors, neural pathways and neuroplasticity, throughout the life cycle.

Relatively speaking, the brain consumes an immense amount of energy in comparison to the rest of the body. The human brain is approximately 2% of the human body mass and uses 20-25% of the total energy expenditure. Therefore, mechanisms involved in the transfer of energy from foods to neurons are likely to be fundamental to the control of brain function. Insufficient intake of selected vitamins, or certain metabolic disorders, affect cognitive processes by disrupting the nutrient-dependent processes within the body that are associated with the management of energy in neurons, which can subsequently affect neurotransmission, synaptic plasticity, and cell survival.

Deficiency or excess of essential minerals (e.g. iron, zinc, copper, and magnesium) can disrupt brain development and neurophysiology to affect behavior. Furthermore, minerals have been implicated in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's dementia.

Iron is essential for several critical metabolic enzymes and a deficiency of this mineral can disrupt brain development. For, example chronic marginal iron affects dopamine metabolism and myelin fatty acid composition and behavior in mice. In rats a marginal iron deficiency that does not cause anemia disrupted axon growth in the auditory nerve affecting auditory brainstem latency without major changes in myelination. In rhesus macaques, prenatal iron deficiency disrupts emotional behavior and polymorphisms that reduce the expression of monoamine oxidase interact with gestational iron deficiency to exacerbate the response to a stressful situation leading to increased aggressiveness. Inexpensive and effective iron supplementation is an available preventative strategy recommended by the World Health Organization. However, iron supplementation can exacerbate malaria infection. Therefore, individuals receiving iron supplementation in malaria-endemic areas must be carefully monitored.

...
Wikipedia