ArticleScientific reports2021
Insights into the role of diet and dietary flavanols in cognitive aging: results of a randomized controlled trial.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04582617 (COSMOS Web), which is not on this map. Cited by 24 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
COSMOS Web: Investigating the Effects of Cocoa Flavanol on Cognition Assessed Online
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of cocoa extract supplementation on cognitive function: results from the clinic subcohort of the COSMOS trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2024Trial
- A combined DHA-rich fish oil and cocoa flavanols intervention does not improve cognition or brain structure in older adults with memory complaints: results from the CANN randomized, controlled parallel-design study.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2023Trial
- Multivitamin Supplementation Improves Memory in Older Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2023Trial
- Dietary flavanols restore hippocampal-dependent memory in older adults with lower diet quality and lower habitual flavanol consumption.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Trial
- Effects of cocoa extract and a multivitamin on cognitive function: A randomized clinical trial.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2023Trial
- Flavonoids as Modulators of the p53-Bcl-2 Axis in Cancer: Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutic Implications.Pharmaceutics · 2026Review
- Dietary Polyphenols in Brain Aging: Molecular Mechanisms and Implications for Neurodegeneration.Nutrients · 2026Review
- A roadmap for conducting more inclusive research on brain resilience in ageing and dementia.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Article
- Brain Neurotrophins and Plant Polyphenols: A Powerful Connection.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Investigating nutrient biomarkers of healthy brain aging: a multimodal brain imaging study.npj aging · 2024Article
- Flavanols for Age-related Memory Loss: A Promising Nutritional Intervention.Annals of neurosciences · 2023Article
- Characterization of the Interindividual Variability Associated with the Microbial Metabolism of (-)-Epicatechin.Journal of agricultural and food chemistry · 2023Article
- Association of dietary flavan-3-ol intakes with plasma phenyl-γ-valerolactones: analysis from the TUDA cohort of healthy older adults.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2023Article
- Anatomical biology guides a search for nutrients for the aging brain.Molecular aspects of medicine · 2023Review
- Chocolate and Cocoa-Derived Biomolecules for Brain Cognition during Ageing.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Determination of Cocoa Flavanols and Procyanidins (by Degree of Polymerization DP1-7) in Cocoa-Based Products by Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography Coupled With Fluorescence Detection: Collaborative Study.Journal of AOAC International · 2022Article
- Design and baseline characteristics of participants in the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS).Contemporary clinical trials · 2022Article
- Hormetic response to B-type procyanidin ingestion involves stress-related neuromodulation via the gut-brain axis: Preclinical and clinical observations.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
With the world's population aging, age-related memory decline is an impending cognitive epidemic. Assessing the impact of diet on cognitive aging, we conducted a controlled, randomized, parallel-arm dietary intervention with 211 healthy adults (50-75 years) investigating effects of either a placebo or 260, 510 and 770 mg/day of cocoa flavanols for 12-weeks followed by 8-weeks washout. The primary outcome was a newly-developed object-recognition task localized to the hippocampus' dentate gyrus. Secondary outcomes included a hippocampal-dependent list-learning task and a prefrontal cortex-dependent list-sorting task. The alternative Healthy Eating Index and a biomarker of flavanol intake (gVLM) were measured. In an MRI substudy, hippocampal cerebral blood volume was mapped. Object-recognition and list-sorting performance did not correlate with baseline diet quality and did not improve after flavanol intake. However, the hippocampal-dependent list-learning performance was directly associated with baseline diet quality and improved after flavanol intake, particularly in participants in the bottom tertile of baseline diet quality. In the imaging substudy, a region-of-interest analysis was negative but a voxel-based-analysis suggested that dietary flavanols target the dentate gyrus. While replication is needed, these findings suggest that diet in general, and dietary flavanols in particular, may be associated with memory function of the aging hippocampus and normal cognitive decline.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.