Examining the influence of diet on auditory working memory in females

Abstract

Background: A nutritious diet is crucial for good health and cognitive function, including working memory (WM). Nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, and vitamins found in whole foods have been linked to improved WM. Examining the impact of dietary habits on WM in women, who face hormonal and health-related challenges, is important. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effects of nutrition on WM in women with good and poor dietary habits. Methods: A total of 60 female participants in the age range of 20–30 years were included in the study. Participants were divided according to dietary habits into two groups of 30 each: group 1 with good and group 2 with poor food habits. This categorization was based on their scores on Adolescent Food Habits Checklist (AFHC). Auditory WM was evaluated across multiple tasks—forward digit span, backward digit span, ascending and descending digit span, 3n running span, and 3n-back digit to all participants. Results: Results of Mann–Whitney U test showed that women with good food habits had significantly better backward digit span (/Z/ = 0.009, p < 0.05, Re = 0.011) and descending scores (/Z/ = 0.032, p < 0.05, Re = 0.004) compared to those with poor food habits. No correlation was found between the AFHC scores and the scores on all WM tests (p > 0.05), except the backward span (p = 0.002). These results suggest that better nutritional intake might enhance performance in these memory-related tasks. Conclusion: Nutritional intake differentially affects WM in women, with those having good dietary habits performing better in tasks requiring sustained memory as inferred from their superior performance on backward and descending span tasks. This highlights the potential role of nutrition in shaping cognitive abilities. However, the WM does not correlate with the AFHC scores, except on backward memory span.