A study just published in Hypertension documents that continuous activation of the renin-angiotensin system impairs cognitive function in mice. In humans, low-salt diets reliably predict increased activity of the renin-angiotensin system. The body produces these neurohormones when it senses inadequate salt intake -- and that "inadequacy" is far, far above the IOM's "adequate intake" level for sodium. Low-salt dieters can be assumed to have continuously high renin-angiotensin activity levels.
Other studies have suggested low-salt diets may produce mental impairment. This could be the mechanism.
All this is in addition to the contributions of iodized salt, the consensus solution to overcoming the most easily-prevented, but still-widespread cause of mental retardation: iodine deficiency
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