Omega-3: according to the Australians, they boost brain power
Published on 18/3/2014
Are Omega-3s really that good for you? Even to the point of enhancing an individual's cognitive functions?
The study conducted in Australia at Swinburne University by a team led by Isabelle Bauer appears to answer this question in the affirmative.
13 people took part in the experiment. All of them were young adults under 30, who underwent so-called "blind tests" and MRI scans to assess brain activity.
Put in very simple terms (for more detail we refer you to the original article or directly to the clinical study), the participants were given, over an extended period, set quantities of supplements of specific Omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), followed by an equivalent "washout" period off the supplements.
What do the results show? That taking EPA-rich supplements somehow reduces brain fatigue, since it allows for reduced activation of an area of the brain known as the left anterior cingulate cortex (the one damaged by neurological diseases such as Huntington's chorea).
But the crux of the study would seem to lie in the fact that, for the first time, improvement in cognitive performance was linked to the individual's level of brain activity. The human brain, in fact, tends to adjust its level of activity according to the performance one wishes to achieve. It is therefore clear that lower levels of brain activation allow (or should allow) the threshold to be raised further and greater performance to be achieved.
here is the abstract of the full study from the Wiley online library