Effect of Morning Snack on Cognitive Performance in Adults

NCT03637829 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: Ryerson-REB-2017-339
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 26
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

To characterize the effects of three chocolate snacks on cognitive performance, subjective appetite, food intake control, and glycemic response in normal weight adults.

Conditions

Nutrition; Cognitive Change; Food Intake Control; Satiety

Keywords

Healthy adults; Cognitive performance; Chocolate; Food intake; Glycemic response

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (6)

• Verbal declarative memory

  One of six word lists composed of 15 words will be audio presented and participants will be asked to write them down. The word list will be presented 3 times and the participant will immediately write down words after each time the word list is presented. This test will take 5 minutes

  At 15 minutes

• Change from baseline spatial memory

  Assessed using a spatial pattern recognition test on the Membrain Application. There will be a grid of 9 boxes with circles randomly located inside each box. Participants will be asked to remember where circles are located in each box. This test is done 6 times at each time-point, with each test having different random locations of circles. Each test will take 20 seconds.

  At Baseline, 15, 45, and 75 minutes

• Change in verbal declarative memory from the 15 minute time-point

  Participants will be asked to recall and write down all the words from the word list presented at the 15 minute time-point. This test will take 2 minutes.

  At 45 and 75 minutes

• Change from baseline executive function

  Will be assessed the Stroop task via the Membrain application. Participants will be presented with a list of words presented in colors that match the word (congruent, the word 'red' presented in red) or colors that do not match the word (incongruent, the word 'red' presented in blue). Participants will be asked to identify the color of the word, not the word itself. The task is scored for the number of correct and incorrect colors identified, as well as total time to completion. This test will be at each time-point and will take 1 minute to complete.

  At Baseline, 15, 45, and 75 minutes

• Change from baseline working memory and executive function

  A random 3 digit number will appear on the screen of the Membrain Application and the participant will have to continually subtract 3 from this number. At each time-point, participants will also complete the same test, except will subtract 7 continuously. This is a 2 minute test.

  At Baseline, 15, 45, and 75 minutes

• Change from baseline attention and reaction time

  Using the Membrain Application, Aa continuous string of single digit numbers appear on the screen, one at a time (each appearing for about one second). After seeing three consecutive ascending odd numbers, participants click the 'odd' button. When they see three consecutive, ascending even numbers, they click the 'even' button. When they see the number "1", they click the 'tertiary' button. This test is 5 minutes in length.

  At Baseline, 15, 45, and 75 minutes

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• Change from baseline subjective average emotions

  At Baseline, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 minutes

• Change from baseline global vigor

  At Baseline, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 minutes

• Change from baseline subjective average appetite

  At Baseline, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 minutes

• Change from baseline blood glucose concentration

  At Baseline, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 minutes

• Food intake

  At 90 minutes

Study Arms (4)

Control

PLACEBO COMPARATOR

250 mL of water

Other: Control

White Chocolate

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

White chocolate (40 g)

Other: White chocolate

Dark chocolate 1

EXPERIMENTAL

Dark chocolate (40 g)

Other: Dark chocolate 1

Dark chocolate 2

EXPERIMENTAL

Dark chocolate (46 g) possibly containing caffeine and/or theobromine

Other: Dark chocolate 2

Interventions

Control OTHER

Water

Control

White chocolate OTHER

Experimental snack treatment

White Chocolate

Dark chocolate 1 OTHER

Experimental snack treatment

Dark chocolate 1

Dark chocolate 2 OTHER

Experimental snack treatment

Dark chocolate 2

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 35 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• be between 18 and 35 years of age
• be healthy and have a have body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 24.9
• not be taking any medications, not smoking, and
• not have allergies to chocolate, dairy or gluten
• be tested during the early follicular phase of their menstrual cycle for women

You may not qualify if:

• anyone with food sensitivities or allergies to chocolate, dairy or gluten,
• smokers
• diabetic or overweight/obese individuals.
• Restrained eating habits, defined as scoring greater than 11 points on the eating habits questionnaire

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Toronto Metropolitan University: lead

Study Sites (1)

School of Nutrition, Ryerson University

Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada

Location

Study Officials

• Nick Bellissimo, PhD

  Toronto Metropolitan University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, INVESTIGATOR
• Masking Details: treatments are in individual packages labelled "A", "B" and "C". Study participants and investigators are blinded to the composition of the test treatments.
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Model Details: A random and within subject, repeated measures experiment to study the effect of chocolate on cognitive performance, subjective appetite, food intake, and glycemic response in normal weight adults.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 16, 2018
• First Posted: August 20, 2018
• Study Start: March 5, 2018
• Primary Completion: September 1, 2018
• Study Completion: September 1, 2018
• Last Updated: May 21, 2019

Record last verified: 2019-05

Locations

CA (1)