2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Effect of skipping breakfast on the mental loads of healthy young Subjects by analysis of a cerebral blood flow and autonomic nerves activity
| Project/Area Number |
22700754
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Eating habits, studies on eating habits
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| Research Institution | Chiba Prefectural University of Health Sciences |
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Principal Investigator |
SAWAI Asuka 千葉県立保健医療大学, 健康科学部, 助教 (00454330)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2010 – 2011
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| Keywords | 欠食 / 顔認知 / 脳血流 / 顔認知 / 暗算 / 交感神経 |
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| Research Abstract |
This study employed an epidemiologic survey and analyzed cerebral blood flow and autonomic-nerve activity to determine the impact of skipping breakfast on cognitive function.
Thirty-five university students were included in this study. Cognition was tested by Stroop's color words test, mental arithmetic tests and human facial recognition tests. The number of answers submitted by subjects declined in all three tests after skipping breakfast. The number of correct answers in the human facial recognition test also declined after skipping breakfast.
Eighty elementary school students underwent the human facial recognition test. Although, their ability to identify angry or fearful faces was not impaired after skipping breakfast, their ability to identify happy or calm faces fell significantly.
Near Infrared Spectroscopy was used to measure blood flow at the front and sides of the heads of 15 university students. In the same students, autonomic nerve activity was measured by electrocardiogram. Cerebral blood flow analysis revealed that oxygen hemoglobin(oxy-Hb) value was slightly lower in the front left head of resting subjects on days where the subjects skipped breakfast. There was no change in oxy-Hb during mental arithmetic tests among subjects who skipped breakfast, but there was a slight reduction in hemoglobin(Hb). During facial recognition tests, the average Hb was lower on both sides of the head when subjects skipped breakfast. Significantly difference of autonomic-nerve activity between eat breakfast and skip breakfast, but there was not different among three tests.
Although skipping breakfast did not affect autonomic-nerve activity or cerebral blood flow during mental arithmetic and human facial recognition tests, the results of the three types of tests and autonomic-nerve activity and cerebral blood flow analysis suggest that skipping breakfast has some impact.
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