Omega-3 shown to boost memory in young adults

Young adults can boost their working memory by increasing omega-3 fatty acid intake, research from the University of Pittsburgh has shown.

“Before seeing this data, I would have said it was impossible to move young healthy individuals above their cognitive best,” said Bita Moghaddam, project investigator and professor of neuroscience. “We found that members of this population can enhance their working memory performance even further, despite their already being at the top of their cognitive game.”

The research team gave healthy young men and women from a range of ethnicities an omega-3 supplement for six months and monitored them monthly through phone calls and outpatient procedures.

Before they began taking the supplements, all participants underwent positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, and their blood samples were analysed. They were then asked to perform a working memory test in which they were shown a series of letters and numbers, having to keep track of what appeared one, two and three times prior. This is known as a simple ‘n-back test’.

“What was particularly interesting about the presupplementation n-back test was that it correlated positively with plasma omega-3,” said Moghaddam. “This means that the omega-3s they were getting from their diet already positively correlated with their working memory.”

At the end of the six-month trial, the participants completed the outpatient procedures again. The working memory test and blood sampling showed improved working memory in participants taking the supplement.

“So many of the previous studies have been done with the elderly or people with medical conditions, leaving this unique population of young adults unaddressed,” said Matthew Muldoon, project co-investigator and associate professor of medicine at Pitt. “But what about our highest-functioning periods? Can we help the brain achieve its full potential by adapting our healthy behaviours in our young adult life? We found that we absolutely can.”

The research was published in a paper entitled “Improved Working Memory but No Effect on Striatal Vesicular Monoamine Transporter Type 2 after Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Supplementation” in the journal PLOS One.