ABSTRACT
a nutrient contributes to a range of physiologic functions, it is important to establish that gains in one are not offset by losses in another. It is here that animal models have an important contribution to make. Not only do they allow a degree of control over dietary intake not possible in humans, but they also afford the opportunity to investigate the full range of effects by including dietary extremes; in addition, because of their shorter life span, they make the study of long-term effects more feasible. The objective of this presentation is to describe the effects of dietary supplementation with LC-PUFA and to compare them with those of dietary deficiency. In the studies described below we used different rodent models to address the effects of dietary supplementation with varying levels of n-6 and n-3 fatty acids on the fatty acid composition and functional development of the brain. Specifically, the questions asked were as follows: 1. How does dietary fatty acid composition affect brain
