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Original Article

Effects of Ramadan on cognitive functions in young boys

ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon & ORCID Icon
Article: 2301830 | Received 15 May 2023, Accepted 31 Dec 2023, Published online: 09 Jan 2024
 

ABSTRACT

Fasting during Ramadan involves abstaining from food and drink from dawn to sunset, potentially influencing cognitive functions essential for the intellectual development of the youth. Therefore, understanding the effects of fasting on these functions in children/adolescents provides valuable perspectives to enhance education and promote mental well-being. However, studies on children/adolescents in this context are still limited. To evaluate the impact of Ramadan fasting on cognitive functions, including information processing speed, inhibition, decision-making, and auditory attention processes among children and adolescents aged 11 to 15 years. This study was conducted with 24 healthy children/adolescents (aged 12.84 ± 0.69 years). The experimental protocol consisted of two sessions: Before-Ramadan (BR) and at the beginning of the second week of Ramadan (R2). At each session, the boys were randomly tested on simple reaction time (SRT), choice reaction time (CRT), negative priming reaction time (NPRT), and auditory discrimination (P300). The tests were administered and scored by the same person in the different sessions. The study found that Ramadan fasting did not have an effect on various reaction times or on electro-physiological data, including P300 amplitude and latency. The current study, conducted with healthy children/adolescents, indicates that Ramadan fasting had no impact on various reaction times (SRT, CRT, NPRT), suggesting the preservation of information processing speed and decision-making, even in the face of increased task complexity. This is evident, on the one hand, through the maintenance of the ability to react to unexpected events, and, on the other hand, through the mastery of resistance to automatism, thus reflecting the preservation of inhibitory function (NPRT). Regarding P300 data, the absence of changes in latencies and amplitudes suggests that Ramadan fasting did not alter either the evaluation time of auditory stimuli or auditory attention processes.

Abbreviations

BMI=

Body mass index

BR=

Before Ramadan

CRT=

Choice reaction time

EEG=

electroencephalographic

ERP=

Event-related potential

ES=

Experimental session

NPRT=

Negative priming reaction time

P300=

a positive deflection in the human event-related potential (neurophysiological measures of attention)

R2=

at the beginning of the second week of Ramadan

RF=

Ramadan fasting

RT=

Reaction time

SRT=

Simple reaction time

Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely thank all study participants and extend their heartfelt appreciation for the invaluable assistance rendered by the CHATGPT linguistic model in refining and improving their scientific article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

All authors have agreed upon the content of the article and the order of authorship. The specific contributions of all authors are as follows:

  1. Conception and design of the work: MILADI Amira; LATIRI Imed.

  2. Data collection: MILADI Amira; LATIRI Imed; SAAFI Mohamed Ali

  3. Data analysis and interpretation: MILADI Amira; LATIRI Imed.

  4. Drafting the article: MILADI Amira; LATIRI Imed; SAAFI Mohamed Ali.

  5. Critical revision of the article: MILADI Amira; LATIRI Imed

  6. Final approval of the version to be published: MILADI Amira; LATIRI Imed; SAAFI Mohamed Ali.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.