Full Communication Brain Factor-7 Extracted from Bombyx mori Enhances Cognition and Attention in Normal Children Kunwoo Kim, 1 Subin Park, 1 Hanik K. Yoo, 1 Jun-Young Lee, 2 Hee-Yeon Jung, 2 Do-Hee Kim, 3 Hyun-Jung Lee, 3 Jin-Young Kim, 3 Young-Chul Youn, 4 Maurice R. Marshall, 5 Sung-Su Kim, 3 and Yoonhwa Jeong 6 1 Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Ulsan, Asan Medical Center; 2 Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul Municipal Boramae Hospital; Departments of 3 Anatomy and Cell Biology and 4 Neurology, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Seoul; 6 Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Natural Science, Dankook University, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea; and 5 Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida ABSTRACT It has been reported that brain factor-7 (BF-7) extracted from Bombyx mori improves cognitive functions in normal juveniles and adults as well as cognitively impaired patients. Clinical studies with normal children evaluated the role of BF-7 on brain function in these patients. The objective of this study was to improve cognitive functions of normal schoolchildren with BF-7. Forty-six normal healthy children were divided into two treatment groups: BF-7 (9.9  1.18 years old; 9 boys, 14 girls) and placebo (9.8  1.03 years old; 10 boys, 13 girls). The Color Trails Making Test was used to measure the efficacy of BF-7 on cognition and attention. Results showed that BF-7 reduced the response time by an average of 23% for the Color Trails Making Test. Moreover, BF-7 improved the accuracy of the task around twofold. The results reveal that BF-7 improves brain function for attention and cognitive flexibility in children. KEY WORDS:  attention  brain factor-7  children  cognition  Color Trails Making Test  learning and memory INTRODUCTION L earning is defined as ‘‘gaining knowledge and com- prehension, mastering through experience or study, memorizing or acquiring abilities or skills.’’ 1 The most im- portant cognitive functions that determine learning ability are attention and memory function. Learning ability is also pivotal for success in life because it is related to individ- ual survival, social, occupational, economic, and emotional functions. In school-aged children, repetitious failures in learning could cause the loss of motivation to learn and eventually result in learning deficits. If the child has been left alone or the educational support system has not been avail- able, he or she cannot use his or her intellectual resources and may grow to be incompetent as a social being, which can cause considerable psychological problems and economic and social burdens. 2–4 Educational approaches to improving learning ability and motivation are quite complex. Optimal levels of study objectives, high quality of questions, sys- tematization of learning contents, self-controlled learning activities, and adequate evaluations have been discussed as educational approaches to improve learning capability. 5–7 In addition, positive experiences and feedback through achieve- ments on challenging tasks are considered important educa- tional approaches to enhancing learning motivation. 8–10 Although studies of educational approaches to increasing learning effectiveness have been conducted, investigations on the effectiveness of biological interventions, including placebo-controlled clinical trials, have been rarely con- ducted. In animal studies, theanine (g-glutamylethylamide), catechin, 11,12 taurine, 13 tineapine, 14 rice flavoids, 15 melato- nin, FUB 181 (a novel histamine H3-receptor antagonist), 16 bifemelane hydrochloride, 17 and nimodipine 18 have demon- strated neuroprotective properties and efficacy for the en- hancement of cognitive functions and learning ability. However, the function of all the above have not been studied in humans. Recently, it has been reported that brain factor-7 (BF-7), a natural extract from Bombyx mori, exerts significant improvement on cognitive and protective functions of the nervous system. 19–25 For example, Lee et al. 19 and Kim et al. 20 reported that BF-7 enhanced learning and memory function of normal persons in a dose-dependent manner and Manuscript received 11 August 2008. Revision accepted 12 February 2009. Address correspondence to: Yoonhwa Jeong, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Natural Science, Dankook University, 126 Jookjeon-dong, Suji-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do 448-701, Republic of Korea, E-mail: yjeong@dankook.ac.kr or Sung-Su Kim, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, 221 Heukseuk-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul 156-756, Republic of Korea, E-mail: sungsu@cau.ac.kr JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL FOOD J Med Food 12 (3) 2009, 643–648 # Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. and Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition DOI: 10.1089=jmf.2008.1236 643