Preadolescence is a period in which structural and functional changes occur in brain network reorganization that relate to the development of executive control functions, particularly in the areas of attention and cognitive inhibition. Obesity has been associated with a deficit in executive functions and behavioral and electrophysiological differences using the go/no-go task (proactive inhibition), but no study has assessed brain-electrical activity using the stop-signal task (reactive inhibition) in this population. Therefore, we hypothesized that obese preadolescents would show less efficiency in reactive inhibition than their same-age non-obese peers. To test this hypothesis, event-related potentials (ERPs) were collected during a stop-signal task and compared between 27 obese preadolescents (mean BMI = 25.9; 9.65 years old) and 29 normal-weight preadolescents (mean BMI = 17.5; 9.60 years old). No significant differences between groups were observed in behavioral responses. As for ERPs, the obese group had an electrophysiological pattern associated with less efficient conflict monitoring during the "no-go" condition (i.e., less modulation of N200 latency based on the experimental condition), differences in attentional allocation in the "go" condition (less modulation of P300a latency based on experimental condition), and difficulties in rule retrieval from working memory associated with the trial-type in both experimental conditions (smaller P300b amplitude). We conclude that obese preadolescents displayed less ability to modulate conflict-monitoring in the "no-go" condition and attention allocation in the "go" condition, evidencing differences between groups in the development of attention and inhibitory control.

Throughout infancy, the brain undergoes rapid changes in structure and function that are sensitive to environmental influences, such as diet. Breastfed (BF) infants score higher on cognitive tests throughout infancy and into adolescence than formula fed (FF) infants, and these differences in neurocognitive development are reflected in higher concentrations of white and grey matter as measured by MRI. To further explore the effect diet has on cognitive development, electroencephalography (EEG) is used as a direct measure of neuronal activity and to assess specific frequency bands associated with cognitive processes. Task-free baseline EEGs were collected from infants fed with human milk (BF), dairy-based formula (MF), or soy-based formula (SF) at 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 months of age to explore differences in frequency bands in both sensor and source space. Significant global differences in sensor space were seen in beta and gamma bands between BF and SF groups at ages 2 and 6 months, and these differences were further observed through volumetric modeling in source space. We conclude that BF infants exhibit earlier brain maturation reflected in greater power spectral density in these frequency bands.

Phenolic compounds have a positive effect on obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacity. The prevalence of these diseases has increased in the last years in the Mexican population. Therefore, the Mexican diet must be assessed as provider of phenolic compounds. To assess this, a survey of phenolic compound intake was validated and applicated to 973 adults (798 females) between 18 and 79 years old. We compared the phenolic compound intake of 324 participants with more diseases (239 females) and 649 participants with healthier condition (559 females). The groups differed in sex, age, and scholarship. Males, older participants, and those with lower schooling reported suffering from more diseases. Regarding phenolic compound intake analyses, the participants with healthier conditions displayed a higher phenolic compound intake than the other group in all foods assessed. In addition, the regression model showed that the phenolic compounds intake of Mexican dishes, such as arroz con frijol or enchiladas, positively affected health status, suggesting that this traditional food is beneficial for the participant’s health condition. However, the weight effect of PCI was different for each disease. We conclude that, although PCI of Mexican food positively affects health conditions, this effect depends on sex, age, and participants’ diseases.

Introduction: Infancy is a stage characterized by multiple brain and cognitive changes. In a short time, infants must consolidate a new brain network and develop two important properties for speech comprehension: phonemic normalization and categorical perception. Recent studies have described diet as an essential factor in normal language development, reporting that breastfed infants show an earlier brain maturity and thus a faster cognitive development. Few studies have described a long-term effect of diet on phonological perception.Methods: To explore that effect, we compared the event-related potentials (ERPs) collected during an oddball paradigm (frequent /pa/80%, deviant/ba/20%) of infants fed with breast milk (BF), cow-milk-based formula (MF), and soy-based formula (SF), which were assessed at 3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 months of age [Mean across all age groups: 127 BF infants, Mean (M) 39.6 gestation weeks; 121 MF infants, M = 39.16 gestation weeks; 116 SF infants, M = 39.16 gestation weeks].Results: Behavioral differences between dietary groups in acoustic comprehension were observed at 24-months of age. The BF group displayed greater scores than the MF and SF groups. In phonological discrimination task, the ERPs analyses showed that SF group had an electrophysiological pattern associated with difficulties in phonological-stimulus awareness [mismatch negativity (MMN)-2 latency in frontal left regions of interest (ROI) and longer MMN-2 latency in temporal right ROI] and less brain maturity than BF and MF groups. The SF group displayed more right-lateralized brain recruitment in phonological processing at 12-months old.Discussion: We conclude that using soy-based formula in a prolonged and frequent manner might trigger a language development different from that observed in the BF or MF groups. The soy-based formula’s composition might affect frontal left-brain area development, which is a nodal brain region in phonological-stimuli awareness.

This study examines the event- related brain potential (ERP) of 25 Mexican monolingual Spanish-speakers when reading Spanish sentences with single entity anaphora or complex anaphora. Complex anaphora is an expression that refer to propositions, states, facts or events while, a single entity anaphora is an expression that refers back to a concrete object. Here we compare the cognitive cost in processing a single entity anaphora [ésta_feminine; La renuncia (resignation)] from a complex anaphora [esto_neuter; La renuncia fue aceptada (The resignation was accepted)].Éstaelicited a larger positive peak at 200 ms, andestoelicited a larger frontal negativity around 400 ms. The positivity resembles the P200 component, and its amplitude is thought to represent an interaction between predictive qualities in sentence processing (i.e., graphical similarity and frequency of occurrence). Unlike parietal negativities (typical N400), frontal negativities are thought to represent the ease by which pronouns are linked with its antecedent, and how easy the information is recovered from short-term memory. Thus, the complex anaphora recruited more cognitive resources than the single entity anaphora. We also included an ungrammatical control sentence [éste_masculine; La renuncia (resignation)] to better understand the unique processes behind complex anaphoric resolution, as opposed to just general difficulty in sentence processing. In this case, event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited byéste_masculineandésta_femininewere compared. Again,éstaelicited a larger P200. However, different from the experimental condition, a left anterior negativity (LAN) effect was observed foréste; the ungrammatical condition. Altogether, the present research provides electrophysiological evidence indicating that demonstrative pronouns with different morphosyntactic features (i.e., gender) and discourse parameters (i.e., single entity or complex referent) interact during the first stage of anaphoric processing of anaphora. This stage initiated as early as 200 milliseconds after the pronoun onset and probably ends around 400 ms.