Sandra I Sünram-Lea

• Doctor of Psychology
• Professor (Full) at Lancaster University

Reduced Glycemic Index (GI) of breakfast has been linked to improved cognitive performance in both children and adult populations across the morning. However, few studies have profiled the post-prandial glycemic response (PPGR) in younger children. The aim of this study was to assess PPGR to breakfast interventions differing in GI in healthy childr...

Research suggests that as many as 60% of people with type 1 diabetes (T1D) admit to misusing insulin. Insulin omission (IO) for the purpose of weight loss, often referred to as diabulimia, is a behaviour becoming increasingly recognised, not least since prolonged engagement can lead to serious vascular complications and mortality. Several risk fact...

Background The use of apps for the treatment of depression shows great promise. However, there is uncertainty regarding the alignment of publicly available apps for depression with clinical guidance, their treatment fidelity and evidence base, and their overall safety. Objective Built on previous analyses and reviews, this study aims to explore th...

BACKGROUND The use of apps for the treatment of depression shows great promise. However, there is uncertainty regarding the alignment of publicly available apps for depression with clinical guidance, their treatment fidelity and evidence base, and their overall safety. OBJECTIVE Built on previous analyses and reviews, this study aims to explore th...

The effect of carbohydrate (CHO) consumption on mood is much debated, with researchers reporting both mood improvements and decrements following CHO ingestion. As global consumption of sugar-sweetened products has sharply increased in recent years, examining the validity of claims of an association between CHOs and mood is of high importance. We co...

Breakfast has been claimed to improve cognitive function and academic performance, leading to the provision of breakfast initiatives by public health bodies. Children may be particularly sensitive to the nutritional effects of breakfast due to greater energetic needs compared to adults. However, there is a lack of acute intervention studies assessi...

The brain has a high metabolic rate and its metabolism is almost entirely restricted to oxidative utilisation of glucose. These factors emphasise the extreme dependence of neural tissue on a stable and adequate supply of glucose. Whereas initially it was thought that only glucose deprivation (i.e. under hypoglycaemic conditions) can affect brain fu...

Self-control is important for everyday life and involves behavioral regulation. Self-control requires effort, and when completing two successive self-control tasks, there is typically a temporary drop in performance in the second task. High self-reported motivation and being made self-aware somewhat counteract this effect-with the result that perfo...

There has been increasing interest in the effects of nutrition on cognitive performance and more specifically how cognitive performance can be optimised using nutritional interventions. The macronutrient glucose has particularly received attention and is perhaps most thoroughly researched in terms of its effects on cognition. The notion that oral g...

Research shows that self-control is resource limited and there is a gradual weakening in consecutive self-control task performance akin to muscle fatigue. A body of evidence suggests that the resource is glucose and consuming glucose reduces this effect. This study examined the effect of glucose on performance in the antisaccade task - which requir...

Rationale Current research suggests that glucose facilitates performance on cognitive tasks which possess an episodic memory component and a relatively high level of cognitive demand. However, the extent to which this glucose facilitation effect is uniform across the lifespan is uncertain. Methods This study was a repeated measures, randomised,...

Glucose facilitation of cognitive function has been widely reported in previous studies (including our own). However, several studies have also failed to detect glucose facilitation. There is sparsity of research examining the factors that modify the effect of glucose on cognition. The aims of the present study were to (1) demonstrate the previousl...

During emergencies maladaptive behavior can reduce survival. This study compared the effects of a basic firefighter training course on 21 volunteers (with no firefighting experience) with age and gender-matched controls. Stress reactivity (salivary cortisol and anxiety) were monitored across the course: day 1 (classroom), day 2 (physical equipment...

The role of carbohydrates on mood and cognition is fairly well established, however research examining the behavioural effects of the other macronutrients is limited. The current study compared the effects of a 25 g glucose drink to energetically matched protein and fat drinks and an inert placebo. Following a blind, placebo-controlled, randomised...

Previous research has identified a number of factors that appear to moderate the behavioural response to glucose administration. These include physiological state, dose, types of cognitive tasks used and level of cognitive demand. Another potential moderating factor is the length of the fasting interval prior to a glucose load. Therefore, we aimed...

Over the past four or five decades, there has been increasing interest in the neurochemical regulation of cognition. This field received considerable attention in the 1980s, with the identification of possible cognition enhancing agents or "smart drugs". Even though many of the optimistic claims for some agents have proven premature, evidence sugge...

It has been suggested that the memory enhancing effect of glucose follows an inverted U-shaped curve, with 25 g resulting in optimal facilitation in healthy young adults. The aim of this study was to further investigate the dose dependency of the glucose facilitation effect in this population across different memory domains and to assess moderation...

Acute stress has been associated with changes in cognitive performance and mood, and these have been in part associated with stress-related increased release of cortisol. Both glucose and caffeine consumed in isolation have been shown to moderate cortisol response and affect cognitive performance and affect mood; however, there has been very little...

Previous research has suggested that long-term verbal declarative memory is particularly sensitive to enhancement by glucose loading; however, investigation of glucose effects on certain memory domains has hitherto been neglected. Therefore, domain specificity of glucose effects merits further elucidation. The aim of the present research was to pro...

Whilst previous research has shown that glucose administration can boost memory performance, research investigating the effects of glucose on memory for emotional material has produced mixed findings. Whereas some research has shown that glucose impairs memory for emotional material, other research has shown that glucose has no effect on emotional...

This double-blind, placebo-controlled study examined the influence of appetitive state on glucose enhancement of memory. Participants rated their mood, hunger and thirst, then consumed a 25 g glucose drink or a matched placebo 20 min prior to a verbal memory task. There was a double dissociation when the effects of thirst ratings and drink on subse...

Behavioural evidence supports the notion that oral glucose ingestion enhances recognition memory judgements based on recollection, but not familiarity. The present study sought to clarify and extend upon these behavioural findings by investigating the influence of glucose administration on event-related potential (ERP) components that are thought t...

The cognition-enhancing effects of glucose administration to humans have been well-documented; however, it remains unclear whether this effect preferentially targets episodic memory or other cognitive domains. The effect of glucose on the allocation of attentional resources during memory encoding was assessed using a sensitive dual-attention paradi...

Exposure to an acute naturalistic stressor induces both psychological and physiological changes in humans. The two studies reported here explored the impact of exposure to an acute naturalistic stressor on state anxiety, working memory and HPA axis activation (salivary cortisol). In both experiments, ten healthy male participants were exposed to an...

It is currently debated whether glucose facilitation of cognitive performance is due to differential targeting of hippocampal memory or whether task effort is a more important determinant. Using a placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover 2(Drink: glucose/placebo)×2(Effort: ±secondary task) design, 20 healthy young adults’ recognition memory perf...

Previous research has identified a number of factors that appear to moderate the behavioural response to glucose administration. Previously identified sources of variance in the behavioural response include physiological state, dose, types of cognitive tasks used and cognitive demand. Potential moderating factors will be discussed based on two expe...

The aim of this study was to further examine the effects of macronutrients on mood and cognition and to assess the potential moderating influence of time-of-day (morning or evening) and eating behaviour (Three Factor Eating Questionnaire—TFEQ). Following a between participant design, 45 healthy young participants were randomly allocated to three di...

The ingestion of a glucose containing drink has been shown to improve performance on a variety of cognitive tasks. There is debate, however, as to whether glucose especially benefits hippocampal memory functioning or whether it has a more global effect on attentional systems. The present study used event related potential methodology (ERPs) to inve...

Previous research has demonstrated that glucose administration facilitates long-term memory performance. The aim of the present research was to evaluate the effect of glucose administration on different components of long-term recognition memory. Fifty-six healthy young individuals received (a) a drink containing 25 g of glucose or (b) an inert pla...

The aim of this study was to investigate changes in emotional state, food perception and cognition following administration of small quantities of low-, medium- or high-energy food. Thirty-eight female dieters and non-dieters aged 18–51 years (mean BMI=24.6 kg m−2) were asked to rate their emotional state before and after consumption and dietary re...

High fat diets and sedentary lifestyles are becoming major concerns for Western countries. They have led to a growing incidence of obesity, dyslipidemia, high blood pressure, and a condition known as the insulin-resistance syndrome or metabolic syndrome. These health conditions are well known to develop along with, or be precursors to atheroscleros...

Previous research has demonstrated that glucose administration improves memory performance. However few studies have addressed the effects of glucose on emotional material that by nature already enjoys a memory advantage. The aim of the present research was therefore to investigate whether the memory facilitation effect associated with glucose woul...

Recent evidence suggests that single dose administration of ginseng can improve certain aspects of cognitive performance and mood in healthy young volunteers in a dose and time dependent manner. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of acute administration of 400 mg of a standardised Panax ginseng extract (G115®, Pharmaton SA) on mood...

Memory for a list of 20 words can be enhanced when learning is preceded by consumption of 25 g of glucose, compared with consumption of an equally sweet aspartame solution. The present study examined whether memory performance is also enhanced when glucose is administered in conjunction with another food constituent, in particular fat. Four groups...

Memory for a list of 20 words can be enhanced by preceding learning by consumption of 25 g of glucose, compared with consumption of an equally sweet aspartame solution (Psychopharmacology 137 (1998) 259; Psychopharmacology 157 (2001) 46). However, using this anterograde administration procedure, it is impossible to separate whether glucose affects...

Memory for a list of 20 words can be enhanced by preceding learning with consumption of 25 g glucose rather than an equally sweet aspartame solution. In previous studies, participants performed a secondary hand-movement task during the list-learning phase. The present placebo-controlled, double-blind study examined whether the additional cognitive...

Rationale: Memory for a list of 20 words can be enhanced by preceding learning with consumption of 25g glucose rather than an equally sweet aspartame solution. In previous studies, participants performed a secondary hand-movement task during the list-learning phase. Objective: The present placebo-controlled, double-blind study examined whether the...

Previous investigations have demonstrated increased performance after the administration of a glucose-load on certain aspects of cognitive functioning in healthy young adults. Generally these studies have used a procedure where participants were tested in the morning after an overnight fast. The aim of the present study was, for the first time, to...

Memory for a list of 20 words can be enhanced by preceding learning by consumption of 25 g of glucose, compared with consumption of an equally sweet aspartame solution (Psychopharmacology 137 (1998) 259; Psychopharmacology 157 (2001) 46). However, using this anterograde administration procedure, it is impossible to separate whether glucose affects...