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April 8, 2019 - Three King’s College students, along with a member of the class of 2018 and a faculty member presented research findings at the 48th Annual Meeting of Neuroscience held recently in San Diego, Cal.

Organized by the Society for Neuroscience, the goal of the conference is to educate physicians in the field.

The research, presented at a poster session, focused on the long-term cognitive effects of consuming high-fructose corn syrup. Using a rodent model, the research suggests that overconsumption of added sugars during adolescence, which spans human ages 10-26, can cause long-lasting difficulties in learning and motivation. In fact, even when sugar consumption is limited following childhood, problems with learning and motivation can still continue to persist into adulthood.

These data tell us that consuming excessive sugar during middle school, high school and even college can affect the ability to learn and persevere, possibly for the rest of an adult’s life. The effects were monitored by examining changes made by high fructose corn syrup in the brain of the rats at an age corresponding to adult humans.

Pictured, from left, is Jennifer Britten, a 2018 graduate of King’s; current students Dabriel Ramos, Stephanie Krugel, and Nathanial Dyanick; and Dr. Jessica Anderson, assistant professor of psychology at King’s.