Overview
- The study, led by University of Auckland psychologist David Moreau, aggregates 71 experiments encompassing 3,484 participants.
- Most protocols involved about 12 hours without food, with assessments spanning memory, decision-making, and response speed and accuracy.
- Modest performance reductions appeared when fasting extended beyond roughly 12 hours.
- Children showed noticeable cognitive declines during fasting, though they represented a small portion of the overall dataset.
- Deficits were concentrated in tasks with food-related cues, indicating hunger-linked distraction rather than generalized impairment.