Scott Small, MD, and his colleagues from the Columbia University Medical Center have found that dietary cocoa flavanols, which are naturally occurring bioactive chemicals in cocoa, reversed age-related memory decline in older healthy adults.

The study offers the first direct proof that a memory decline in humans resulting from old age are caused by changes in a particular area of the brain. The team also the form of memory decline could be halted by dietary intervention.

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As individuals grow older, they generally show some decrease in cognitive abilities, including learning and remembering where one has placed their keys, or the names of new acquaintances. The typical memory decline related with age starts in early adulthood, but it usually does not have a significant impact on the quality of life until adults reach their 50s or 60s.

The memory decline caused by aging is different from the memory impairment that happens with Alzheimer's disease, in which the process of the illness eliminates nerve cells in different parts or regions of the brain, including its memory circuits.

Prior studies by Small on the subject were able to show that the changes in a particular area of the brain, the dentate gyrus, is related with age-associated decline. Up until now, however, the evidence in people only showed a correlational link and not a causal one. To find out if the dentate gyrus was the actual source of the memory decline in humans, Small and his team tested whether compounds called cocoa flavanols can boost the function of the region of the brain and improve memory. Extracted from cocoa beans, the flavanols had been previously found to enhance the nueronal connections in the gyrus of mice.

A test drink containing a cocoa flavanol was particularly prepared for research purposes by the Mars, Incorporated food company, which also supported a part of the study using the company's proprietary process to draw the compound from cocoa beans.

There were 37 healthy volunteers, with ages ranging from 50 to 69, that participated in the study. They were randomized to receive a low-flavanol diet, with only 10 milligrams of the compound a day, or a high-flavanol diet, which had 900 mg of the compound a day, over the course of three months.

The researchers monitored the blood volume in the dentate gyrus, a measure of brain metabolism, through brain imaging and memory tests were given to the participants, which involved a 20-minute pattern-recognition exercise geared to evaluating a specific kind of memory controlled by the dentate gyrus.

"When we imaged our research subjects' brains, we found noticeable improvements in the function of the dentate gyrus in those who consumed the high-cocoa-flavanol drink," said lead author Adam M. Brickman, PhD, associate professor of neuropsychology at the Taub Institute.

Tagschocolate, brain, Memory, Aging, Age-related memory loss, old age, Poor memory