Flavonoids effect on cognition

Can an increased flavonoid intake affect our cognitive performance?

Just as scientists are interested in the effect of flavonoids on bodily functions, such as blood pressure, they are also interested in finding out whether mood, memory or attention can be improved by increasing our dietary intake of flavonoids.

To do so, they use batteries standardized test, administered before and after the consumption of high levels of flavonoids. The test can be quite taxing and are commonly used to measure cognitive performances in a variety of different conditions and of experimental settings.

Unfortunately, it is often the case that multiple studies carried out by different people, with different methodology, do not agree on the result – that is why scientists regularly adopt a statistical technique, called meta-analysis, to reach an answer that summarizes the available evidence.

In this video we briefly discuss the state of the art research of this field, while in the next (and last) video of the week we will present the studies that use neuroscientific techniques to assess the effect of flavonoids on the brain, rather than on cognitive functions.