Aging is known to affect adversely the corticosterone status and the brain function including cognition. Calorie restricted (CR) diet has been found to improve brain aging. The objective of the present investigation is to study the effect of short-term CR diet without any food deprivation on aging-induced impairment of cognitive function in relation to the corticosterone status and the brain regional GABA system. The result showed that aging-induced deregulation of the brain regional GABA system, increase in plasma and adrenal corticosterone levels and cognitive impairment were attenuated with short-term CR diet supplementation for consecutive 1 and 2 months to the aged (18 and 24 months) rats. But in young rats (4 months) consumption of the same CR diet under similar conditions reversibly affected those above-mentioned parameters. These results, thus suggest that (a) aging down-regulates brain regional GABA system with an up-regulation of corticosterone status and impairment of cognitive function, (b) CR diet consumption improves this aging-induced deregulation of brain regional GABA system, corticosterone status, and cognitive function, (c) these attenuating effects of CR diet are greater with a longer period of consumption but (d) CR diet consumption is harmful to young rats as observed in those parameters.

已知衰老会对皮质酮状态和包括认知在内的脑功能产生不利影响。已发现限制热量（CR）饮食可改善大脑衰老。本研究的目的是研究没有任何食物匮乏的短期CR饮食对衰老诱导的与皮质酮状态和大脑区域GABA系统相关的认知功能损害的影响。结果表明，对于年龄较大的（18和24个月）大鼠，连续1和2个月短期补充CR饮食可以减轻衰老引起的大脑区域GABA系统失调，血浆和肾上腺皮质激素水平的升高以及认知障碍。 。但是在年轻大鼠（4个月）中，在相似条件下食用相同的CR饮食可逆地影响上述参数。这些结果，