Anthocyanins, a group of flavonoids which are found in high concentrations in various foods and drinks such as blueberries, are postulated to promote healthy brain function. Indeed we have previously shown beneficial effects of blueberry anthocyanin treatment in adults on a variety of memory, attention and executive function tasks. Similar effects in a school-aged population, it could be argued, may enhance learning. Initial pilot work from our laboratory has shown improvements in memory using a sample of 8–9 year old children supplemented with a blueberry milkshake. In this experiment we describe a comprehensive time-course and dose-response analysis of these effects. Using a cross-over design, children (n=21; 7–9 year olds) consumed a control, 126.5 mg or 253 mg blueberry anthocyanin drink performing a cognitive task battery at baseline, 1.5, 3 and 6 h following intervention. On an Auditory Verbal Learning Task, in comparison to control, both 126.5 mg and 253 mg anthocyanin treatments produced significantly better performance in delayed word recognition sustained over each test period post-supplementation. While on a flanker task, 253 mg anthocyanin treatment produced improved accuracy on incongruent trials, an effect that was particularly evident at 3 h post-supplementation. Taken together, these results support our previous findings showing beneficial effects of flavonoids on memory, whilst showing for the first time, improvements in attentional processing. Work is continuing to further investigate these effects.
