This article gives an overview of the importance of essential fatty acids (EFAs) to healthy brain function and behavior.

It is already known that EFAs are crucial for many naturally occurring processes in the body. The authors of this article describe how EFAs affect similar processes in the brain. EFAs have important influences on how cells work, especially brain cells (neurons). They also affect the way cells in the brain talk to each other. Finally, the authors outline the research showing that the relative amounts of two types of EFAs (omega-6 and omega-3) is more important than the absolute levels of each type of EFA. However, they state that the ideal amount of each EFA is still not known.