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Flavanol-rich food for thought

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A randomized clinical trial in older adults shows that high dietary intake of cocoa flavanols enhances memory performance on an object-recognition task and neural activity as assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, a region that is critical for learning and memory.

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Figure 1: A computerized assessment of dentate gyrus function.

Marina Corral Spence/Nature Publishing Group

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Judy Pa is in the Institute for Neuroimaging and Informatics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA,

    Judy Pa

  2. Adam Gazzaley is in the Department of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.,

    Adam Gazzaley

Authors
  1. Judy Pa
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  2. Adam Gazzaley
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Correspondence to Judy Pa or Adam Gazzaley.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Pa, J., Gazzaley, A. Flavanol-rich food for thought. Nat Neurosci 17, 1624–1625 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3876

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