Define high fat? Is this another high vegetable oil study where they group all fats with oxidized O6?

I don't think it's going to affect my diet or life at all. Rats aren't humans. We don't share anything close to the same evolutionary history.

Unfortunately, it looks like the data comes from a conference presentation so we can't even look at it more closely.

ANOther issue, what is the ideal dopamine level? Too high dopamine is bad but so is too low. If we are comparing one diet to another, we can say that the one is too high or we can say that the other is too low. Maybe the low fat diet produced unnaturally high levels of dopamine response and the high fat diet fixes that. I am actually not at all surprised that high fat diets alter brain functioning. Or maybe the truth is that low fat diets alter brain functioning!

My mother used to be often mean and aggressive but when she went higher fat and lower carb, she became much nicer. High fat did something to her brain chemistry and let me tell you it's something I really really like! This study is somewhat interesting but does not tell us what is optimal and that is what we really want to know. Since we know so little about brain function in general, I am thinking the only way to get a better idea is to study the larger scale outcomes like overall health and feelings of well being and this study did not do that.
-Eva

Rats are good for many studies, but there have been experiments done where rats exhibited a negative response, and primates exhibited no response. Their diet is different because they are rodents. Squirrels can live solely on nuts, but human's need other dietary supplements to survive.

What kinds of fats are used? Probably trans, PUFA, hydrogenated, partly-hydrogenated, ... Is it just a high fat diet or is it high fat and high carb?

My guess is the diet used in the study is a diet no paleo eater would touch with a 10 foot pole.