Association between Fish Consumption and Prefrontal Function during a Cognitive Task in Male Japanese Workers: A Multi-Channel Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between fish consumption and prefrontal function during a cognitive task in male Japanese workers. The study included 208 male workers who underwent medical health examinations 3 months after a change in their work assignment. We measured the hemoglobin concentration changes in the prefrontal region during working memory tasks using 52-channel near-infrared spectroscopy. The frequency of fish consumption was calculated on the basis of the subjects’ self-reported customary intake frequency over the previous 3 months. A significant positive relationship was observed between fish consumption and left dorsolateral prefrontal function during a working memory task. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report an association between fish consumption and functional cortical activity with an ample sample size, suggesting that fish consumption modulates functional activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.