The influences of plasma glucose level on cognitive function and cardiovascular responses

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  • 血中グルコース濃度の認知機能および心血管系応答への影響について <原著論文>
  • 血中グルコース濃度の認知機能および心血管系応答への影響について
  • ケッチュウ グルコース ノウド ノ ニンチ キノウ オヨビ シンケッカンケイ オウトウ エ ノ エイキョウ ニ ツイテ

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Abstract

Plasma glucose is the sole energy source for the brain. It is likely that a decrease or increase in plasma glucose concentration may affect brain cognitive function in daily life. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively examine, using a Stroop color-word test, whether or not an alteration in plasma glucose level could affect brain cognitive function in humans. To change the plasma glucose level, nine healthy subjects (age, 23 ± 2.0 yr) fasted for 19 ± 0.9 hr prior to the experiments and then orally ingested either 300 ml water or 20% glucose water solution with the same volume of 300 ml. The level of plasma glucose became 82 ± 2 mg/dl with water intake and 176 ± 5 mg/dl with 20% glucose intake, respectively. On the other hand, the plasma glucose level was 106 ± 6 mg/dl when taking a regular diet without fasting (control condition). In each condition, brain cognitive function was assessed using the Stroop color word test with 200 questions by measuring the total time period required for the test and the number of errors. The total time period for the Stroop test was significantly longer for the lowered plasma glucose level compared to the normal plasma glucose level (145 ± 8 s vs. 133 ± 9 s), whereas the number of errors was not significantly different among the three conditions. In contrast, although the heart rate (HR) and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) significantly increased during the Stroop test, the increases were not statistically different among the three conditions. Thus the reduction in plasma glucose level lowered the response speed for the Stroop color word test but did not affect cardiovascular responses during the test. It is concluded that the plasma glucose level influences brain cognitive function, especially response speed, but not cardiovascular function.

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