Direct and Indirect Effects of Blood Levels of Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids on Reading and Writing (Dis)abilities

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether there are associations between\r\npolyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) blood levels, reading/writing performance and performance\r\nin neuropsychological tasks. Moderate to strong correlations were found between PUFA\r\nlevels (specific omega-6/omega-3 ratios) and reading/writing abilities, and the former and neuropsychological\r\ntest scores. Mediation models analyzing the direct and indirect effects of PUFA on\r\nreading and writing scores showed that the effects of fatty acids on learning measures appear to be\r\ndirect rather than mediated by the investigated visual and auditory neuropsychological mechanisms.\r\nThe only significant indirect effect was found for the difference in accuracy between the left\r\nand right visual fields in visual-spatial cueing tasks, acting as a mediator for the effect of PUFA\r\nratios on writing accuracy. Regression analyses, by contrast, confirmed the roles of phonological\r\nawareness and other visual attentional factors as predictors of reading and writing skills. Such\r\nresults confirm the crucial role of visual-spatial attention mechanisms in reading and writing, and\r\nsuggest that visual low-level mechanisms may be more sensitive to the effects of favorable conditions\r\nrelated to the presence of higher omega-3 blood levels.