Eating junk food or damaging spatial memory

A new Australian study shows that eating high-sugar and high-fat junk food may have a long-term negative impact on spatial memory.

Spatial memory is a kind of memory used to represent the geographical location or direction of the external environment, such as the memory of drivers on urban roads, the memory of rats looking for food in the maze, and the memory of every location of the maze. Researchers at the University of New South Wales, Australia, reported in the Journal Science Report that they used rats to eat junk food for three, five or seven consecutive days in six weeks, and healthy food for the rest of the day, during which they tested their spatial memory. The results showed that the longer the rats ate junk food, the worse their spatial memory performance. In addition, compared with rats fed junk food for three days in a row, rats fed junk food for five days in a row gained more weight, more fat and metabolic status was closer to those fed junk food for seven days in a row. "Over three days a week (eating junk food) can have a serious impact on the memory of rats," said Morris, senior author of the study and professor at the University of New South Wales. Researchers say more research is needed to see if junk food has the same effect on humans.