A study by King’s College London examining rodents found that intermittent fasting may be beneficial for improving long-term memory retention, implicating specific brain areas.
As published in Molecular Psychiatry, fasting increases Klotho gene expression in adult rodents, with Klotho regarded as vital for the production of hippocampal neurogenesis.
From the study: “We examined whether IF in the form of every-other-day feeding enhances cognition and adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) when compared to a matched 10% daily CR intake and ad libitum conditions.”
“This study addressed whether the beneficial effects of IF on cognition are due to a decrease in total amount of calories consumed or to the increased interval between meals,” researchers also established in the findings.
“These data suggest that IF is superior to 10% CR in enhancing memory and identifies Kl as a novel candidate molecule that regulates the effects of IF on cognition likely via AHN enhancement.”
