CHAPTER LXXIX 



Abnormalities of neural function in the 

 presence of inadequate nutrition 



JOSEF BROZEK 1 

 FRANCISCO GRANDE 



Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene, School of Public Health, 

 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 



CHAPTER CONTENTS 



Acute Starvation 

 Semistarvation 

 Protein Deficiency 



Kwashiorkor 

 Dehydration 

 Minerals 



Sodium Chloride 



Calcium 



Magnesium 



Manganese 



Iodine- 

 Cobalt 



Copper 

 Vitamins 



Thiamine 



Manifestations of vitamin B, deficiency in animals 

 Thiamine deficiency in man 



Riboflavin 



Neurological manifestations of riboflavin deficiency in 



animals 

 Riboflavin deliciency and the nervous system in man 



Nicotinic Acid (Niacin) 



Pantothenic Acid 



Vitamin B 6 (Pyridoxine) 



Manifestations of deficiency in animals 

 Manifestations of deficiency in man 



Vitamin B, : (Cyanocobalamine) 



Nutritional Neuropathies 



Vitamin A 



Vitamin E (Tocopherol) 

 Nondeficitary Abnormalities of Nutritional Origin 



Mushroom Poisoning 



Canine Hysteria 



Lathyrism 



Cicerism 



Phenylpyruvic Oligophrenia 



alterai u in OF METABOLISM induced by nutritional 

 means, frequently requiring a considerable invest- 

 ment of time and rigorous dietary control, has not 

 often appealed to neurophysiologists as an experi- 

 mental procedure. Consequently, the effect of defec- 

 tive nutrition on the nervous system has received 

 relatively little systematic attention (87) even though 

 a variety of neurological syndromes has been recog- 

 nized as nutritional in origin, the essential 'lesions' 

 being biochemical in character (258, p. 7871. 



The investigations of metabolism and nervous func- 

 tion have suffered because no adequate indexes of in 

 vitro function are available for the central nervous 

 system. In vivo, the electrical manifestations provide 

 useful but limited information. The technique of 

 conditioned responses and the behavioral indexes 

 have been used in nutritional research, but not 

 systematically (30, 48). Performance capacity, assessed 

 quantitatively in animals, deserves more attention 

 than it has received in the past (27, 301). In man a 

 large number of studies on nutritional deficiencies 

 were stimulated by interest in "fitness' and the changes 

 in fitness under physiological stresses of nutritional 

 origin. For this reason the higher,' more complex 

 functions (intellectual, psychomotor) were emphasized 

 (28) rather than simpler functions involving chronaxie 

 or tendon reflex studies. 



Nutritional deficiencies may disturb the normality 

 of nervous function either directly by interfering with 



'Present address: Department of Psychology, Lehigh Uni- 

 versity, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 



1891 



