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Updated: Jul 10, 2026
P50 Sensory Gating in Infants
Published on: December 26, 2013
Prenatal choline supplementation increases sensitivity to time by reducing non-scalar sources of variance in adult
Ruey-Kuang Cheng1, Warren H Meck
1Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, 572 Research Drive, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
Insights
Maternal choline supplementation during pregnancy improves offspring
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Nutritional Neuroscience
- Behavioral Neuroscience
Background:
- Maternal diet influences offspring neurodevelopment and cognitive functions.
- Choline is essential for brain development and neurotransmitter synthesis.
- Early nutritional status impacts long-term cognitive abilities, including temporal processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the long-term effects of prenatal choline supplementation on interval timing in adult male rats.
- To determine if prenatal choline affects temporal sensitivity and response patterns in a peak-interval procedure.
- To elucidate the mechanisms by which early nutrition influences temporal cognition.
Main Methods:
- Prenatal choline supplementation administered to pregnant rats during embryonic days 12-17.
- Offspring (adult male rats) trained using a peak-interval procedure with varying reinforcement probabilities (75%, 50%, 25%).
- Analysis of response thresholds (Start and Stop) and timing functions under different temporal criteria (18s, 36s, 72s).
Main Results:
- Prenatal choline supplementation sharpened interval timing functions in adult rats.
- Choline reduced the influence of reinforcement probability on the Start response threshold, decreasing non-scalar variance.
- No significant effects on the Stop response threshold were observed; peak time and peak rate remained independent.
Conclusions:
- Prenatal choline supplementation enhances offspring's interval timing abilities.
- This enhancement is achieved by reducing early-interval impulsive responding, leading to improved temporal accuracy.
- Early nutritional interventions, like choline supplementation, offer a promising strategy for optimizing cognitive development and function.
Abstract:
Choline supplementation of the maternal diet has a long-term facilitative effect on timing and temporal memory of the offspring. To further delineate the impact of early nutritional status on interval timing, we examined effects of prenatal choline supplementation on the temporal sensitivity of adult (6 months) male rats. Rats that were given sufficient choline in their chow (CON: 1.1 g/kg) or supplemental choline added to their drinking water (SUP: 3.5 g/kg) during embryonic days (ED) 12-17 were trained with a peak-interval procedure that was shifted among 75%, 50%, and 25% probabilities of reinforcement with transitions from 18 s-->36 s-->72 s temporal criteria. Prenatal choline supplementation systematically sharpened interval timing functions by reducing the associative/non-temporal response enhancing effects of reinforcement probability on the Start response threshold, thereby reducing non-scalar sources of variance in the left-hand portion of the Gaussian-shaped response functions. No effect was observed for the Stop response threshold as a function of any of these manipulations. In addition, independence of peak time and peak rate was demonstrated as a function of reinforcement probability for both prenatal choline-supplemented and control rats. Overall, these results suggest that prenatal choline supplementation facilitates timing by reducing impulsive responding early in the interval, thereby improving the superimposition of peak functions for different temporal criteria.
