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Behavioral profile of intermittent vs continuous access to a high fat diet during adolescence (animal study)
This current study seeked to find mostly unexplored answers including whether the effects of a high-fat diet (HFD) on cognitive functions are maintained after terminating the diet, and explores the behavioral alterations caused by having a limited access to a HFD. The main objective was to compare the impacts of having a high fat diet intermittently vs continuously during adolescence on their cognition and anxiety-like behaviors, and examine any changes that occur after interruption of the HFD. The control involved adolescent male mice receiving a standard diet for 40 days, while other groups of mice were fed a HFD for the same length of time, either continuously or sporadically (available for 2 hours, three days a week. Another two groups of mice were given intermittent or continuous access to the HFD and withdrawn from the diet 15 days before the behavioral tests. Those rodents who consumed a HFD continuously exhibited significant symptoms (higher levels of circulating leptin, increased bodyweight, hyperlocomotion, marked memory and spatial learning impairments) all of which disappeared at the 15-day mark of stopping the HFD. But after discontinuation of fat, both in a binge and continuous pattern, more anxiety-like behavior was seen in the mice population. The researchers conclude from the experiment that a high-fat diet consumed during adolescence leads to alterations in brain functions, and the extent of these behavioral changes is influenced by the dietary pattern. [NPID: cognition, executive functioning, executive function, high-fat diet, high fat diet, cognitive functions, anxiety, animal, mice, leptin, hyperlocomotion, spatial learning, brain function, behavioral changes, behavior]
Year: 2019
