Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between fish consumption and prefrontal function during a cognitive task in male Japanese workers. The study included 208 male workers who underwent medical health examinations 3 months after a change in their work assignment. We measured the hemoglobin concentration changes in the prefrontal region during working memory tasks using 52-channel near-infrared spectroscopy. The frequency of fish consumption was calculated on the basis of the subjects’ self-reported customary intake frequency over the previous 3 months. A significant positive relationship was observed between fish consumption and left dorsolateral prefrontal function during a working memory task. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report an association between fish consumption and functional cortical activity with an ample sample size, suggesting that fish consumption modulates functional activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
Highlights
Over the years, fish consumption has been linked to multiple health benefits [1,2,3,4,5]
First we found significant increase in the mean [oxy-Hb] levels during the task period compared with the baseline in all channels but ch5, 6 and 16 (FDR-corrected p: 0.001–0.047) (Fig 2)
Previous studies indicated that dietary consumption of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) through fish may lead to high brain functional activity [30,31], in the present study, we did not find a significant correlation between the mean [oxy-Hb] changes in the left DLPFC and plasma EPA or DHA concentrations
Summary
Fish consumption has been linked to multiple health benefits [1,2,3,4,5]. Fish is a major dietary source of long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), especially eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which are critical for brain structure and functioning [6]. EPA and DHA have been shown to benefit mental health [7,8]. Considerable evidence suggests that insufficient intake of omega-3 PUFAs and low concentrations of EPA and DHA are associated with depressive disorders [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22]. Numerous epidemiologic and dietary studies confirm that supplementation of omega-3
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