Summary: New research links higher levels of lutein in the eye to better academic achievement and cognitive performance in school-age children.
Source: University of Illinois.
Researchers at the University of Illinois report that higher lutein levels in the eye — a pigment found in leafy greens, egg yolks, and some fortified foods — are associated with stronger cognitive test performance and higher scores on standardized academic tests in pre-adolescent children. These relationships remained after accounting for other known contributors to academic success such as IQ, sex, body composition, physical fitness and socioeconomic status.
The team, led by kinesiology and community health professor Naiman Khan with cognitive neuroscientist Anne M. Walk, emphasizes that diet in childhood is often evaluated primarily for its effects on obesity, but its role in learning and cognition has received less attention. Lutein is already well known for supporting eye health and protecting the retina; these studies add evidence that lutein may also be relevant to brain function during development.
Lutein is a yellow carotenoid pigment concentrated in green leafy vegetables, egg yolks and certain fortified foods. It functions as an antioxidant and helps protect tissues from oxidative damage and blue light exposure. The pigment preferentially accumulates in neural tissue compared with many other dietary pigments, and earlier work has shown high lutein concentrations in the infant brain, suggesting a role in early brain development and function.
In the first study, published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology, the researchers measured retinal lutein levels in 49 children aged 8 to 10 and recorded brain activity with electroencephalography (EEG) while the children performed a demanding cognitive task. The investigators focused on the P3 component of the EEG — a brain response that typically peaks around 300 milliseconds after a stimulus and is commonly interpreted as an index of cognitive resource allocation or engagement.
Children with higher retinal lutein exhibited lower P3 amplitude during the task, yet they performed better than peers with lower lutein levels. The pattern suggests that higher lutein may be associated with more efficient neural processing: these children achieved higher accuracy while showing less neural effort, as reflected by reduced P3 amplitude.
In a second study reported in Nutritional Neuroscience, the same research team examined the relationship between retinal lutein and standardized academic achievement in 8- and 9-year-old children. Children with higher lutein levels scored better on academic tests than peers with lower levels, and these associations persisted after statistically controlling for other contributors to achievement.
Khan and collaborators calculated that a combination of measured factors — cardiorespiratory fitness, IQ, socioeconomic status, body mass index and retinal lutein — accounted for roughly half of the variability in academic performance across participants. The researchers note that removing lutein from the set of predictors reduced the accuracy of predicting a child’s academic performance, indicating lutein adds explanatory power beyond traditional predictors.
Importantly, the authors caution that these observational findings do not demonstrate causation. While the results are consistent with a possible beneficial role for lutein in childhood cognition and learning, randomized controlled trials and dietary intervention studies are needed to test whether increasing lutein intake leads to measurable improvements in cognitive processes or school achievement.
Funding: The research was conducted through a partnership between the University of Illinois and Abbott Nutrition at the Center for Nutrition, Learning and Memory at the University of Illinois. Ongoing work at the Center is exploring whether dietary interventions, including lutein supplementation, can influence cognition in pre-adolescent children. This research contributes to a larger randomized controlled trial supported by Abbott Nutrition and the National Institutes of Health.
Source: Diana Yates, University of Illinois
Image Source: Image credited to L. Brian Stauffer.
MLA: University of Illinois. “Studies Link Nutrient to Academic Achievement in Pre-Adolescent Children.” NeuroscienceNews, 20 June 2017.
APA: University of Illinois (2017, June 20). Studies Link Nutrient to Academic Achievement in Pre-Adolescent Children. NeuroscienceNews.
Chicago: University of Illinois. “Studies Link Nutrient to Academic Achievement in Pre-Adolescent Children.” NeuroscienceNews. Accessed June 20, 2017.