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冯磊老师
近期，新加坡国立大学冯磊团队在对36位老年人的神经影像进行检查时发现相对不喝茶的人来说，规律性喝茶者大脑区域拥有更好的组织性，而这个与健康的认知功能有关。研究团队2019年6月将结果发表在学术期刊《 Aging 》上。研究人员第一次发现喝茶对大脑结构具有积极作用，这说明规律性喝茶可以保护随年龄变大而导致的大脑组织退化。
以前的研究发现喝茶对人体健康有益，包括改善心情、抑制心血管疾病等。2017年冯磊团队发表在《The Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging 》期刊上的研究结果发现每天喝茶可以将老年人的认知退化风险降低50%。
基于上述发现，冯磊团队进一步研究茶对大脑网络的直接影响。研究人员招募了36位60岁以上的老年人，收集他们的健康状况、生活方式和心理健康状况数据。老年人还进行神经心理测试和核磁共振成像（MRI），研究在2015年-2018年之间进行。
喝茶者和不喝茶者大脑六个区域显著不同
通过分析老年人的认知行为和脑成像，研究人员发现那些25年间每周至少喝四次绿茶，或乌龙茶，或红茶的人，他们的脑区能够更有效地相互连接。
研究人员来路面交通来做比喻，脑区就是目的地，而脑区之间的相互连接就是道路。当道路系统被更好地组织起来时，车辆和行人就能够更有效地移动，而占用更少的资源。相似地，当脑区之间的连接被更好地精心组织起来时，信息加工过程会更加地有效。
以前的研究认为相对不喝茶的人，喝茶者的认知能力更好。而目前关于茶对大脑网路的积极结果间接对我们以前的研究结果进行了支持。
因为认知行为和大脑的组织性之间关系复杂，需要进一步的研究来对大脑的功能更好地理解和认识，比如脑回路的记忆产生；以及可能的干预来更好地保护随着年龄增长的认知功能退化。
冯磊副教授团队下一步就是研究茶或者茶中的活性物质对认知退化的影响。
参考资料
[1] Li J, Romero-Garcia R, Suckling J, Feng L. Habitual tea drinking modulates brain efficiency: evidence from brain connectivity evaluation. Aging (Albany NY). 2019; 11:3876-3890.https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102023[2] Feng L, Chong MS, Lim WS, Gao Q, Nyunt MS, Lee TS, Collinson SL, Tsoi T, Kua EH, Ng TP. Tea consumption reduces the incidence of neurocognitive disorders: findings from the Singapore longitudinal aging study. J Nutr Health Aging. 2016; 20:1002–09. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-016-0687-0
附：冯磊老师简介
Dr Feng Lei
MBBS (China), PhD (S’pore)
Principal Investigator & Research Assistant Professor, Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Profile
Dr Feng Lei received his medical and psychiatric trainings in Shandong, China and obtained his PhD from the National University of Singapore in 2009. He has worked as a lecturer of medical psychology at Weifang Medical University in Shandong province, China from 2000 to 2004, where he also provided counselling and psychotherapy services. He received research training on functional neuroimaging, at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge in 2013 and conducted visiting research on cognitive aging at the Aging Research Center (ARC), Karolinska Institute (KI) in 2016. Dr Feng is currently a Principal Investigator and Research Assistant Professor at Department of Psychological Medicine, National University of Singapore.
His primary research interest is the epidemiology and prevention of cognitive decline and dementia in late life. He also conducts research on brain magnetic resonance imaging and intranasal oxytocin.
He has been involved in cognitive aging and dementia research for over 15 years. He is currently leading several community-based studies in Singapore: The Diet and Healthy Aging (DaHA) study, the Aging in a Community Environment Study (ACES), the Choral Singing for Dementia Prevention Trial. He is a collaborator of several large Asian cohorts such as the Singapore Longitudinal Aging Study (SLAS), the Singapore Chinese Health Study (SCHS) and the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). He is a core team member of the Gerontology Research Program (GRP) and the emerging SG90 and SG70 cohorts.
Actively engaged in research, Dr Feng is a successful investigator with over 90 research publications on ageing, psychiatric, and neuroscience research studies and is a regular peer reviewer for top journals such as the British Medical Journal.
He has won numerous awards like the Alice Lim Memorial Fund Award in 2010, the NUHS Academic Medicine Development Award in 2013, and the NUHS Clinician Scientist Program Award in 2014. He was chosen to receive the NMRC Clinician Scientist Transition Award in 2017.
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