Metabolic Nutrients and Brain Health: Enhancing Cognitive Function through Diet

The relationship between nutrition, metabolism, and brain health is an expanding field crucial to understanding cognitive aging and disease prevention. Current research shows that dietary components, have significant effects on cerebral metabolism and neuronal function, impacting memory, attention, and overall cognition. Despite growing evidence linking diet and metabolic mechanisms to brain health, large gaps remain regarding which nutrients are most effective, how they modulate metabolic processes, and their potential to offset cognitive decline, particularly as populations age and rates of metabolic disorders rise.

This Research Topic aims to clarify how dietary nutrients support or enhance cognitive function through metabolic pathways. We seek to uncover the molecular mechanisms by which nutrients—ranging from fatty acids and glucose to antioxidants—influence neuronal energy metabolism, neuroprotection, and plasticity. A major objective is to identify both promising interventions and metabolic or molecular biomarkers that could pave the way for targeted strategies improving or preserving cognitive health across diverse populations.

Themes of interest include but are not limited to:
• Dietary fats and glucose metabolism in cognitive aging
• The roles of antioxidants and redox balance in neurometabolic function
• Nutritional interventions for cognitive and metabolic health maintenance
• Mechanistic pathways (e.g., mitochondrial function, insulin signaling)
•Multi-omics, cohort, and clinical trial approaches

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Registered Report
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: metabolism, cognitive, inflammation, nutrition and brain health, cognitive aging and diet, metabolism and cognition, dietary nutrients and neuronal function, fatty acids and brain metabolism, glucose metabolism and cognition, antioxidants and neuroprotection, redox balance and brain function, mitochondrial function and cognition, insulin signaling and brain health, nutritional interventions for cognitive decline, metabolic disorders and brain health, multi-omics in nutrition research, biomarkers of cognitive health, diet and neuroplasticity

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.