A supplement of 600 mg DHA/d in the last half of gestation resulted in overall greater gestation duration and infant size. A reduction in early preterm and very-low birth weight could be important clinical and public health outcomes of DHA supplementation. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00266825.

Infants were followed longitudinally to document the relationship between docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) levels and the development of attention. Erythrocyte (red-blood cell; RBC) phospholipid DHA (percentage of total fatty acids) was measured from infants and mothers at delivery. Infants were assessed in infant-control habituation at 4, 6, and 8 months augmented with psychophysiological measures, and on free-play attention and distractibility paradigms at 12 and 18 months. Infants whose mothers had high DHA at birth showed an accelerated decline in looking over the 1st year and increases in examining during single-object exploration and less distractibility in the 2nd year. These findings are consistent with evidence suggesting a link between DHA and cognitive development in infancy.

The data from this relatively small trial suggest that, although the effects of LCPUFAs may not always be evident on standardized developmental tasks at 18 mo, significant effects may emerge later on more specific or fine-grained tasks. The results imply that studies of nutrition and cognitive development should be powered to continue through early childhood. This parent trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00266825.

A longitudinal sample of 226 infants were tested monthly on habituation and novelty preference tasks, augmented with simultaneous heart rate recording from 3 to 9 months of age. Infants were then administered the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II (BSID) and MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (MCDI) at 12, 18, and 24 months. Prior findings regarding the decline in look duration with age were replicated. Age‐based factors were extracted from the monthly assessments, an early attention factor from 3 to 6 months and a late attention factor from 7 to 9 months. A novelty preference factor, which grouped recognition performance at 4 and 6 months of age, was also derived. The late attention factor correlated negatively with a factor score derived from the BSID mental index, and the novelty preference aggregate was correlated positively with a factor score derived from the MCDI production scores. Two clusters of infants were derived based on the developmental course of change from the early attention to late attention look duration aggregates: One cluster (n= 150) decreased strongly, and another (n= 50) increased. Infants belonging to these clusters subsequently differed on both the BSID and MCDI outcomes, with the former cluster showing distinct advantages that increased as the outcome assessments progressed from 12 to 24 months of age. This finding was bolstered by subsequent analyses of data from infants who completed all tests run from 3 to 9 months. The results of this study suggest that the developmental course of attention during infancy is an important clue to cognitive and language outcomes in early childhood.

Using eye-tracking technology we investigated visual scanning and pupillary responses to face and non-face stimuli in nine children (M = 49.6 months) with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) compared to six mental-age and nine chronological-age matched children. The results revealed a significant decrease in visual scanning to landscapes. In addition, the ASD group showed pupillary constriction to children's faces, while control groups showed pupillary dilation. Visual scanning responses to landscapes had a negative correlation with the Behavior subscale of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic for the ASD group. Potential use of these measures as early indicators of ASD is discussed.