Purpose of review: To integrate recent discoveries in the cognitive neuroscience field on overall brain development, performance and energy requirements, with insight obtained on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of stimulation with food at the periphery.
Recent findings: A clear picture emerges of the brain energy demand, its changes through life and the nutritional requirements to provide an optimally functioning intellect at any time. Of particular importance is the dynamic range resulting from differences between 'poor diet' and 'optimal diet'. On the basis of a healthy brain, the question becomes: what drives transient cognitive performance, and to what extent does food-related input from the periphery modulate cognition in general? Over the last decade, vast achievements in the understanding of chemosensory signal transduction on the tongue have been made. Most molecular receptors for various taste modalities have been identified, and the logic of their coding into the brain has been largely unravelled. Moreover, an intriguing discovery has been made that most of the known taste receptors are also expressed in the gastrointestinal tract.
Summary: Brain energy supply and balanced diet are being unravelled on the molecular and cellular levels as prerequisites for proper cognitive development. With additional insight emerging into the fundamentals of sensory stimulation and perception, we are entering a scientific era that ultimately will link metabolic needs with food preferences, hedonics and healthy nutrition.