Depression in patients with type 2 diabetes associated with cognitive decline

Main Category: Diabetes
Also Included In: Depression;  Alzheimer's / Dementia
Article Date: 15 Aug 2013 - 2:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Depression in patients with type 2 diabetes associated with cognitive decline

Depression in patients with type 2 diabetes was associated with greater cognitive decline in a study of almost 3,000 individuals who participated in a clinical trial, according to a report published by JAMA Psychiatry, a JAMA Network publication.

Depression and diabetes are among the most common illnesses in older primary care populations. Up to 20 percent of adult patients with type 2 diabetes meet the criteria for major depression. Both depression and diabetes appear to be associated with an increased risk for dementia, Mark D. Sullivan, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues write in the study background.

"Depression has been identified as a risk factor for dementia among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus but the cognitive domains and patient groups most affected have not been identified," the study notes.

The study included 2,977 patients with type 2 diabetes at high risk for cardiovascular disease who were participants in the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes-Memory in Diabetes (ACCORD-MIND) trial. Researchers used tests to gauge cognition and a questionnaire to assess depression.

According to the results, patients with scores indicative of depression showed greater cognitive decline during the 40-month follow-up on all tests. The effect of depression on risk of cognitive decline did not differ according to previous cardiovascular disease; baseline cognition or age; or intensive vs. standard glucose-lowering treatment, blood pressure treatment, lipid treatment or insulin treatment, the results also indicate.

"In summary, this epidemiological analysis of the effect of depression on risk for cognitive decline among participants in the ACCORD-MIND study showed that depression is associated with cognitive decline in all domains assessed and that this effect does not differ in important clinical subgroups. This suggests that a potentially reversible factor may be promoting general cognitive decline in the broad population of patients with type 2 diabetes. Since dementia is one of the fastest growing and most dreaded complications of diabetes, our findings may be important for public health," the study concludes.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
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JAMA Psychiatry. Published online August 14, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.1965.

JAMA

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Link between DHA-enriched formula in infancy and positive cognitive outcomes in childhood

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Nutrition / Diet;  Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 14 Aug 2013 - 1:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Link between DHA-enriched formula in infancy and positive cognitive outcomes in childhood

University of Kansas scientists have found that infants who were fed formula enriched with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) from birth to 12 months scored significantly better than a control group on several measures of intelligence conducted between the ages of three to six years.

Specifically, the children showed accelerated development on detailed tasks involving pattern discrimination, rule-learning and inhibition between the ages of three to five years of age as well as better performance on two widely-used standardized tests of intelligence: the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test at age five and the Weschler Primary Preschool Scales of Intelligence at age six.

"These results support the contention that studies of nutrition and cognition should include more comprehensive and sensitive assessments that are administered multiple times through early childhood," said John Colombo, study director and KU professor of psychology.

The results of LCPUFA supplementation studies have been mixed according to Colombo, a neuroscientist who specializes in the measurement of early neurocognitive development, but many of those studies have relied mainly on children's performance on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development at 18 months.

In the randomized, double-blind study, 81 infants were fed one of four formulas from birth to 12 months; three with varying levels of two LCPUFAs (DHA and ARA) and one formula with no LCPUFA. Beginning at 18 months, the children were tested every six months until six years of age on age-appropriate standardized and specific cognitive tests.

At 18 months the children did not perform any better on standardized tests of performance and intelligence, but by age three study directors Colombo and Susan E. Carlson, A. J. Rice Professor of Dietetics and Nutrition at KUMC, began to see significant differences in the performance of children who were fed the enriched formulas on finer-grained, laboratory-based measures of several aspects of cognitive function.

DHA or docosahexaenoic acid is an essential long-chain fatty acid that affects brain and eye development, and babies derive it from their mothers before birth and up to age two. But the American diet is often deficient in DHA sources such as fish.

ARA or arachidonic acid is another LCPUFA that is present in breast milk and commercial formula.

The study was designed to examine the effects of postnatal DHA at levels that have been found to vary across the world, said study co-director Carlson.

The results on the children's development from the first 12 months of this study were published in Pediatric Research in 2011, and showed improved attention and lower heart rate in infants supplemented with any level of LCPUFA. Colombo and Carlson's earlier work and collaborations influenced infant formula manufacturers to begin adding DHA in 2001.

The study was published ahead of print in the June 2013 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
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Long-term effects of LCPUFA supplementation on childhood cognitive outcomes

John Colombo, Susan E Carlson, Carol L Cheatham, D Jill Shaddy, Elizabeth H Kerling, Jocelynn M Thodosoff, Kathleen M Gustafson, and Caitlin Brez; Am J Clin Nutr August 2013 98: 403-412; First published online June 26, 2013. doi:10.3945/ajcn.112.040766

University of Kansas

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Lunch with company reduces cognitive control, may increase social harmony

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Also Included In: Public Health;  Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 31 Jul 2013 - 14:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Lunch with company reduces cognitive control, may increase social harmony

Lunch at a restaurant with friends reduces cognitive control more than lunch eaten alone at a desk does, according to research published July 31 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Werner Sommer from the Humboldt University at Berlin, Germany, and colleagues from other institutions.

Participants in the study either ate a solitary meal alone at their desk in a restricted amount of time, or took a short walk to a restaurant for an hour-long lunch with a friend. All meals were identical in the kind and amounts of food consumed. After the meal, people who had a restaurant lunch were calmer and less wakeful than those who ate at their desks. They also fared more poorly on performance tests of cognitive control, and neurophysiological measurements indicated decreased cognitive control of performance and error monitoring processes. Since the meals differed in many ways including the presence of a friend, environment and lack of time restrictions, the authors explain "It is impossible to specify at this point, which of the variables above are crucial for the effects observed in our study."

They add, "Reduced cognitive control is a disadvantage when close self-monitoring of performance and detailed attention to errors is required, such as in numerical processing. In other situations, an attenuation of cognitive control may be advantageous, such as when social harmony or creativity is desired."

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How about Lunch? Consequences of the Meal Context on Cognition and Emotion.. PLoS ONE 8(7): e70314. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070314

Authors: Sommer W, Stürmer B, Shmuilovich O, Martin-Loeches M, Schacht A

This research was supported by the Wolfgang-Köhler-Zentrum zur Erforschung von Konflikten in Intelligenten Systemen. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Children who use gestures tend to perform better on cognitive tasks

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 30 Jul 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Children who use gestures tend to perform better on cognitive tasks

In the first study of its kind, SF State researchers have shown that younger children who use gestures outperform their peers in a problem-solving task.

The task itself is relatively simple -- sorting cards printed with colored shapes first by color, and then by shape. But the switch from color to shape can be tricky for children younger than 5, says Professor of Psychology Patricia Miller.

In a new study due to be published in the August, 2013 issue of Developmental Psychology, Miller and SF State graduate student Gina O'Neill found that young children who gesture are more likely to make the mental switch and group the shapes accurately.

In fact, gesturing seemed to trump age when it came to the sorting performance of the children, who ranged from 2 and a half years old to 5 years old. In the color versus shape task, as well as one that asked children to sort pictures based on size and spatial orientation, younger children who gestured often were more accurate in their choices than older children who gestured less. The children's gestures included rotating their hands to show the orientation of a card or using their hands to illustrate the image on the card, for example gesturing the shape of rabbits' ears for a card depicting a rabbit.

"Gina and I were surprised by the strength of the effect. Still, the findings are consistent with a growing body of research showing that mind and body work closely together in early cognitive development," Miller said.

"The findings are a reminder of how strong individual differences are among children of a particular age," she added. "Certain 3-year-olds look like typical 4-year-olds. This likely reflects an interaction of natural talent and particular experiences -- both nature and nurture, as usual."

There is a growing body of research that suggests gesturing may play a significant role in the processes that people use to solve a problem or achieve a goal. These processes include holding information in memory, keeping the brain from choosing a course too quickly and being flexible in adding new or different information to handle a task.

Studies have shown that gesturing can help older children learn new math concepts, for example. "Really, though, there is evidence that gesturing helps with difficult cognitive tasks at any age," Miller said. "Even we adults sometimes gesture when we're trying to organize our tax receipts or our closets. When our minds are overflowing we let our hands take on some of the cognitive load."

O'Neill and Miller observed the children's spontaneous gestures as they performed the tasks, as well as gestures they were encouraged to make to explain their sorting choices. Both kinds of gestures were counted in comparing high and low gesturing children.

Children who did a lot of gesturing did better at the sorting task than those who didn't gesture as much -- even when they did not use gesturing during the task itself, the researchers found. This makes it difficult to determine whether it's the gesturing itself that helps the children perform the task, or whether children who use a lot of gestures are simply at a more advanced cognitive level than their peers. It is a question that Miller hopes to answer in further studies.

Miller said there is "quite a bit of evidence now that gestures can help children think," perhaps by helping the brain keep track of relevant information or by helping the brain reflect on the possibilities contained within a task. "In my opinion, children shouldn't be discouraged from gesturing when they want to gesture during learning," she said. "Adults sometimes -- appropriately -- say to children, 'use your words,' but some children may think this applies to all situations."

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The study, "A Show of Hands: Relations between Young Children's Gesturing and Executive Function," will be published in the August, 2013 issue of the journal Developmental Psychology.

San Francisco State University

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