When you've had hypoglycemic episodes, you’ve no doubt noted that it affects your thinking. A team of researchers in Scotland measured the effects of acute insulin-induced hypoglycemia on attention and intelligence in 20 volunteers without diabetes.

They found significant deterioration in these individuals' performance on cognitive function tests that are sensitive to both visual and auditory attention. During hypoglycemia, they found that attentional flexibility deteriorated, and speed of information processing was delayed. The good news is that intelligence scores did not deteriorate during hypoglycemia.

The researchers concluded that many complex attention tasks relevant to everyday life are impaired during moderate hypoglycemia.

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