Western Diet Impairs Memory in Rats

Can It Do So in Humans?


Summary: 

A study published in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity investigated how early-life exposure to a Western-style diet affects memory and brain function. The research, conducted by Hayes et al. (2024), focused on the long-term cognitive consequences of consuming highly processed, high-fat, high-sugar foods during development.

Study design

Male Sprague Dawley rats were assigned to either a Western-style “junk food” diet (20% protein, 35% carbohydrates, 45% fat) or a healthy control diet starting on postnatal day 26. Western-diet exposure lasted 30–60 days, after which all rats were transitioned to a healthy diet. Food intake, behavior, memory performance, metabolic outcomes, brain neurochemistry, and gut microbiome composition were assessed.

Key findings

  • Increased caloric intake: Rats fed the Western diet consumed 15% more calories than controls.

  • Selective memory impairment: Western diet–exposed rats showed significant deficits in contextual episodic memory, a function dependent on the hippocampus. Other memory types were unaffected.

  • Persistence of effects: Importantly, hippocampus-dependent memory impairments persisted even after rats returned to a healthy diet, indicating long-lasting effects of early dietary exposure.

  • No behavioral confounds: There were no differences between groups in anxiety-like behavior or locomotor activity.

  • Gut microbiome changes: Western diet consumption altered gut microbiome composition, but these changes reversed after dietary normalization, unlike the memory deficits.

Mechanistic insight

The study identified dysregulated acetylcholine signaling in the hippocampus as the key mechanism underlying memory impairment:

  • Rats exposed to the Western diet had reduced hippocampal acetylcholine levels and lower cholinergic tone.

  • Disrupted acetylcholine signaling impaired hippocampus-dependent memory processes.

  • Administration of acetylcholine receptor agonists restored memory performance, confirming a causal role of cholinergic dysfunction.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that consuming a Western-style diet during early life can cause long-lasting hippocampal memory impairments through persistent disruption of acetylcholine signaling, even after returning to a healthy diet. Although conducted in rats, the findings provide important mechanistic insight into how early dietary patterns may shape long-term cognitive health and highlight the hippocampus as a key brain region vulnerable to poor-quality diets.

Read full Article here :https://www.nutritional-psychology.org/western-diet-impairs-memory-in-rats-can-it-do-so-in-humans/


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