Location: Responsive Agricultural Food Systems Research Unit
Project Number: 3093-10700-001-011-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2026
End Date: Jun 30, 2029
Objective:
This research aims to bridge the gap in understanding how exposure to polyphenol rich foods or beverages impact cognitive performance, emotional regulation, and social behavior.
Approach:
The project will conduct neurophysiological behavioral economic cognition and prosocial outcomes and integrate them with dietary, biological and clinical measures to identify the causal mechanism. We will employ a randomized experimental design where subjects will be randomized to a polyphenol rich beverage or placebo. Baseline and endline visits will include dietary, anthropometric, biochemical, and neurophysiological assessments. The outcome measures will be assessed during normal cognitive load conditions and during exogenously manipulated high cognitive load to inform outcomes under high cognitive demand. To simulate depleted cognitive resource decision-making, we will exogenously assign high cognitive load by requiring participants to maintain a 7–8 digit number in their working memory. A multi-modal data collection strategy, integrating neurophysiological measures (EEG, eye tracking, and facial expression analysis) with behavioral choice data will be employed. Primary endpoints will include cognitive performance, abstract reasoning, and real-effort productivity to assess executive function under load. Additionally, prosocial and emotional endpoints, specifically focusing on emotion regulation, creativity, and cooperative interactions like reciprocity will be assessed. Collectively, the studies will address how emotional and cognitive regulation is linked to nutritional status and habitual diet, along with metabolic markers.