Lactate fuels the human brain during exercise
Bjørn Quistorff, Niels H. Secher, and Johannes J. Van Lieshout
Abstract
OP’s paper gives at least some (but not many) examples where manipulations in glucose levels modified cognitive performance. However they
mostly just observed that attention leads to lower glucose levels, which
would also be observed if glucose would be one among many energy sources.
Also, before eating all that candy, note (from OP’s paper)
One
study administered glucose drinks to participants and
found that poor glucose tolerance (indicated by glucose
levels remaining high after the person consumed the
drink) was associated with poorer performance on a
dichotic listening task, which is another classic attention-
control task and requires participants to ignore infor-
mation presented in one earphone in order to track and
process the information coming in the other ear (Allen,
Gross, Aloia, & Billingsley, 1996).
I.e. high glucose levels lead to lower cognitive performance.
Perhaps your conclusion misinterprets the results. The glucose tolerance test was given at a different time than the cognitive test, and so no connections between glucose levels and performance should be made. The idea is that ineffective glucose metabolization is an individual difference associated with lower cognitive performance.
Apparently, the brain also burns lactate.
Lactate fuels the human brain during exercise Bjørn Quistorff, Niels H. Secher, and Johannes J. Van Lieshout Abstract
OP’s paper gives at least some (but not many) examples where manipulations in glucose levels modified cognitive performance. However they mostly just observed that attention leads to lower glucose levels, which would also be observed if glucose would be one among many energy sources.
Also, before eating all that candy, note (from OP’s paper)
I.e. high glucose levels lead to lower cognitive performance.
Perhaps your conclusion misinterprets the results. The glucose tolerance test was given at a different time than the cognitive test, and so no connections between glucose levels and performance should be made. The idea is that ineffective glucose metabolization is an individual difference associated with lower cognitive performance.