PubMed Abstract PMID: 12392778
This abstract also posted in the files section of the K9Kitchen discussion group.

Monica's Comments
This study found that fortifying a diet with antioxidants can partially counteract cognitive learning problems as dog's age. Older animals tended to make more mistakes than younger ones, but they made fewer mistakes with antioxidants in their feed. Please note that cognitive decline was not reversed, just slowed.

The full study is posted as a PDF at Science Direct for a $30 download.

The Abstract
Advanced age is accompanied by cognitive decline indicative of central nervous system dysfunction. One possibly critical causal factor is oxidative stress. Accordingly, we studied the effects of dietary antioxidants and age in a canine model of aging that parallels the key features of cognitive decline and neuropathology in humans. Old and young animals were placed on either a standard control food, or a food enriched with a broad spectrum of antioxidants and mitochondrial enzymatic cofactors. After 6 months of treatment, the animals were tested on four increasingly difficult oddity discrimination learning problems. The old animals learned more slowly than the young, making significantly more errors. However, this age-associated decline was reduced in the animals fed the enriched food, particularly on the more difficult tasks. These results indicate that maintenance on foods fortified with complex mixtures of antioxidants can partially counteract the deleterious effects of aging on cognition.

Study Authors
Milgram NW, Life Science Division, University of Toronto at Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, Ont, Canada M1C 1A4

Zicker SC, Science and Technology Center, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc., P.O. Box 1658, Topeka, KS 66601, USA

Head E, Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia, University of California, 1226 Gillespie Neuroscience Research Facility, Irvine, CA 92697-4540, USA

Muggenburg BA, Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, 2425 Ridgecrest Dr. SE, Albuquerque, NM 87108, USA

Murphey H, Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute

Ikeda-Douglas CJ, Life Science Division, University of Toronto at Scarborough

Cotman CW, Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia, University of California

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