Characterization of Children with Intellectual Disabilities and Relevance of Mushroom Hericium Biomass Supplement to Neurocognitive Behavior

<b>Background:</b> The interplay between neuronutrition, physical activity, and mental health for enhancing brain resilience to stress and overall human health is widely recognized. The use of brain mapping via quantitative-EEG (qEEG) comparative analysis enables researchers to identify deviations or abnormalities and track the changes in neurological patterns when a targeted drug or specific nutrition is administered over time. High-functioning mild-to-borderline intellectual disorders (MBID) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) constitute leading global public health challenges due to their high prevalence, chronicity, and profound cognitive and functional impact. <b>Objective:</b> The objectives of the present study were twofold: first, to characterize an extremely vulnerable group of children with functioning autism symptoms, disclosing their overall pattern of cognitive abilities and areas of difficulty, and second, to investigate the relevance of the effects of a mushroom (<i>Hericium erinaceus</i>) biomass dietary supplement on improvement on neurocognitive behavior. <b>Methods</b>: This study used qEEG to compare raw data with a normative database to track the changes in neurological brain patterns in 147 children with high-functioning autistic attributes when mushroom <i>H. erinaceus</i> biomass supplement was consumed over 6 and 12 months. <b>Conclusions:</b><i>H. erinaceus</i> biomass in children with pervasive developmental disorders significantly improved the maturation of the CNS after 6 to 12 months of oral use, decreased the dominant slow-wave activity, and converted slow-wave activity to optimal beta1 frequency. Therefore, despite the lack of randomization, blinding, and risk of bias, due to a limited number of observations, it may be concluded that the <i>H. erinaceus</i> biomass may generate a complex effect on the deficits of the autism spectrum when applied to high-functioning MBID children, representing a safe and effective adjunctive strategy for supporting neurodevelopment in children.