Poor nutrition during pregnancy and lactation negatively affects neurodevelopment of the offspring: evidence from a
Kate Keenan1, Thad Q Bartlett, Mark Nijland
1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, The University of Chicago, 5841 South Maryland Avenue, MC 3077, Room W415, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. kekeenan@uchicago.edu
Insights
Prenatal nutrition restriction in baboons impacted offspring neurodevelopment, affecting task performance, activity, and emotional arousal. These findings highlight the critical role of maternal diet in early brain development and behavior.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Nutritional Science
Background:
- Human studies on prenatal nutrition and neurodevelopment are complex due to confounding psychosocial factors.
- Controlled experimental models are needed to isolate the effects of maternal nutrition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of prenatal nutrition on neurodevelopmental outcomes in a nonhuman primate model.
- To establish a controlled experimental condition to study maternal nutrition restriction (MNR) effects.
Main Methods:
- 19 female baboons were divided into maternal nutrition restriction (MNR) and control groups.
- Offspring were assessed using the progressive ratio task from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery.
- Behavioral measures included activity, persistence, attention, and emotional arousal, coded from videotapes.
Main Results:
- MNR offspring exhibited fewer responses and reinforcements on the progressive ratio task compared to controls.
- MNR offspring displayed more variable activity levels and reduced emotional arousal.
- Female MNR offspring showed decreased persistence and attention variability.
Conclusions:
- Prenatal nutrition significantly affects neurodevelopmental outcomes, including cognitive and emotional behaviors.
- Findings support the development of nutritional interventions for common childhood behavioral issues.
- This primate model provides a foundation for testing preventive nutritional strategies during pregnancy.
Background:
Studies of the effects of prenatal nutrition on neurodevelopment in humans are complicated because poor nutrition occurs in the context of psychosocial stressors and other risk factors associated with poor developmental outcomes.
Objective:
Under controlled experimental conditions, we tested an effect of prenatal nutrition on neurodevelopmental outcomes in the nonhuman primate.
Design:
Juvenile offspring of 19 female baboons, whose diets were either restricted [maternal nutrition restriction (MNR)] or who were fed ad libitum (control), were administered the progressive ratio task from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Activity, persistence, attention, and emotional arousal were coded from videotapes. These established, reliable methods were consistent with those used to assess individual differences in the behaviors of school-age children.
Results:
MNR offspring (3 female and 4 male offspring) had significantly fewer responses and received fewer reinforcements on the progressive ratio task than did control offspring (8 female and 4 male offspring). MNR offspring showed a more variable activity level and less emotional arousal than did control offspring. Female MNR offspring showed more variable and lower levels of persistence and attention than did female control offspring. Thus, under controlled experimental conditions, data support a main effect of prenatal nutrition on highly translatable neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Conclusions:
Nutritional interventions during pregnancy have been successfully used to target neurodevelopmental problems, such as increasing folic acid intake during pregnancy to decrease the incidence of neural tube defects. Results from the current study can be used to support the testing of nutritional preventive interventions for the most-common childhood behavior problems.
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