How Lifestyle Factors Affect Cognitive and Executive Function and the Ability to Learn in Children

Abstract

In today's research environment, children's diet, physical activity, and other lifestyle factors are commonly studied in the context of health, independent of their effect on cognition and learning. Moreover, there is little overlap between the two literatures, although it is reasonable to expect that the lifestyle factors explored in the health-focused research are intertwined with cognition and learning processes. This thematic review provides an overview of knowledge connecting the selected lifestyle factors of diet, physical activity, and sleep hygiene to children's cognition and learning. Research from studies of diet and nutrition, physical activity and fitness, sleep, and broader influences of cultural and socioeconomic factors related to health and learning, were summarized to offer examples of research that integrate lifestyle factors and cognition with learning. The literature review demonstrates that the associations and causal relationships between these factors are vastly understudied. As a result, current knowledge on predictors of optimal cognition and learning is incomplete, and likely lacks understanding of many critical facts and relationships, their interactions, and the nature of their relationships, such as there being mediating or confounding factors that could provide important knowledge to increase the efficacy of learning-focused interventions. This review provides information focused on studies in children. Although basic research in cells or animal studies are available and indicate a number of possible physiological pathways, inclusion of those data would distract from the fact that there is a significant gap in knowledge on lifestyle factors and optimal learning in children. In a climate where childcare and school feeding policies are continuously discussed, this thematic review aims to provide an impulse for discussion and a call for more holistic approaches to support child development.

Keywords: child nutrition; cognitive function; diet; diversity; executive function; focus and concentration; hunger; learning; physical activity; socio-economic characteristics.

Figure 1

Contributors to children’s cognitive, learning, and other developmental outcomes are described in this ecological model. The inner-most circle represents the child’s own body, where physiological conditions, such as the nutrients and energy provided from meals and snacks, as well as the resulting feelings of hunger or tiredness, may directly influence the ability for cognitive processes. The lifestyle factors affecting the child’s physiology are dietary intake, physical activity, and sleeping habits. The outer-most circle represents the child’s larger environment, such as the home and the school. Socioeconomic factors have a substantial effect on access to basic resources, such as an area to play and be active, the noise level at bed time, and the familial established routines and practices. Likewise, the school’s resources, for instance playgrounds and green space, as well as routines and practices, affect the child’s lifestyle behaviors.

Figure 2

An example of the process involved in learning and potential impacts of nutrition, based on Information Processing Theory. The process of learning is a complex construct that can be described as a series of engagement in processing and information-storing/memory systems that ultimately result in knowledge. One of the most basic conditions for a child to be able to complete these tasks is having the necessary energy and no inhibiting factors of discomfort (e.g., hunger, fatigue). If conditions are not optimal, the child experiences lower levels of alertness, or wariness, thus decreases attention to any input from the environment. Thus, WM capacity will be restricted, limiting what information is eventually encoded and retained in long-term memory, from where it can be retrieved at a later time.