Maternal choline supplementation improves infant cognitive development
Choline is an essential nutrient critical for fetal brain development. The amount of choline a mother consumes during pregnancy has lifelong effects on her offspring’s memory, attention and emotion regulation. Higher choline intake can offer protection against many disorders, including autism, Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease. Choline is important in fetal development, but is not currently part of a standard prenatal vitamin regimen. More than 90% of pregnant women in the U.S. consume less than the current recommended amount of 450 mg/day.
Researchers at Cornell University in New York demonstrated that pregnant women who consumed a little over twice the recommended choline intake, 930 mg/day, had children that showed faster information processing as infants. Seven-year-old children performed better on a challenging task requiring sustained attention if their mothers consumed twice the recommended amount of choline during their pregnancy.
Children of mothers who consumed more choline also showed improved information processing speed. Reaction time for infants born to choline-supplemented mothers was, on average, 22.3 milliseconds faster than for infants born to mothers in the control group. Researchers are still analyzing potential impacts on memory and emotion regulation. Increasing maternal choline intake during pregnancy could provide lifelong, population-wide improvements in child cognitive and emotional development.
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