Prenatal undernutrition and cognitive function in late adulthood

Rooij, Susanne R. de; Wouters, Hans; Yonker, Julie E.; Painter, Rebecca C.; Roseboom, Tessa J.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1009459107

Cited by 325 publications

(244 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Our findings are in line with a study showing that late-middle-aged persons, affected by exposure to famine before birth, had poorer executive functioning than those not affected. 31 Better than expected cognitive performance in the presence of brain pathology has been observed in the context of the cognitive reserve hypothesis. 10 The concept of cognitive reserve provides an explanation for differences between individuals in susceptibility to agerelated brain changes or pathology, whereby some people, for example, those with higher educational achievement, can tolerate more of these changes than others and maintain function.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Birth Size and Brain Function 75 Years Later

et al. 2014

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BACKGROUND: There are several lines of evidence pointing to fetal and other early origins of diseases of the aging brain, but there are no data directly addressing the hypotheses in an older population. We investigated the association of fetal size to late-age measures of brain structure and function in a large cohort of older men and women and explored the modifying effect of education on these associations. METHODS: Within the AGES (Age Gene/Environment Susceptibility)-Reykjavik population-based cohort (born between 1907 and 1935), archived birth records were abstracted for 1254 men and women who ∼75 years later underwent an examination that included brain MRI and extensive cognitive assessment. RESULTS: Adjustment for intracranial volume, demographic and medical history characteristics, and lower Ponderal index at birth (per kg/m3), an indicator of third-trimester fetal wasting, was significantly associated with smaller volumes of total brain and white matter; βs (95% confidence intervals) were −1.0 (−1.9 to −0.0) and −0.5 (−1.0 to −0.0) mL. Furthermore, lower Ponderal index was associated with slower processing speed and reduced executive functioning but only in those with low education (β [95% confidence interval]: −0.136 [−0.235 to −0.036] and −0.077 [−0.153 to −0.001]). CONCLUSIONS: This first study of its kind provides clinical measures suggesting that smaller birth size, as an indicator of a suboptimal intrauterine environment, is associated with late-life alterations in brain tissue volume and function. In addition, it shows that the effects of a suboptimal intrauterine environment on late-life cognitive function were present only in those with lower educational levels.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Birth Size and Brain Function 75 Years Later

et al. 2014

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“…Moreover, recent works, studying the effect of external shocks (famine, epidemics, war, etc.) during fetal life and early childhood, have demonstrated that lack of resources has detrimental and durable effects on a range of outcomes later in life: health problems (Lin & Liu, 2014), attention deficits (de Rooij, Wouters, Yonker, Painter, & Roseboom, 2010), anti-social behaviours (Neugebauer, 1999), lower educational level (Lavy, Schlosser, & Shany, 2016), or lower probability of being married and getting a job (Almond, Edlund, Li, & Zhang, 2007). Hence, while life-history strategies remain flexible in the face of new information, at least part of the effect of childhood harshness measured here might reflect conditional adaptations to early life conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Childhood environmental harshness predicts coordinated health and reproductive strategies: A cross-sectional study of a nationally representative sample from France

Mell

Safra

Algan

et al. 2018

Evolution and Human Behavior

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There is considerable variation in health and reproductive behaviours within and across human populations. Drawing on principles from Life History Theory, psychosocial acceleration theory predicts that individuals developing in harsh environments decrease their level of somatic investment and accelerate their reproductive schedule. Although there is consistent empirical support for this general prediction, most studies have focused on a few isolated life history traits and few have investigated the way in which individuals apply life strategies across reproductive and somatic domains to produce coordinated behavioural responses to their environment. In our study, we thus investigate the impact of childhood environmental harshness on both reproductive strategies and somatic investment by applying structural equation modeling (SEM) to cross-sectional survey data obtained in a representative sample of the French population (n = 1015, age: 19-87 years old, both genders). This data allowed us to demonstrate that (i) inter-individual variation in somatic investment (e.g. effort in looking after health) and reproductive timing (e.g. age at first birth) can be captured by a latent fast-slow continuum, and (ii) faster strategies along this continuum are predicted by higher childhood harshness. Overall, our results support the existence of a fast-slow continuum and highlight the relevance of the life history approach for understanding variations in reproductive and health related behaviours.

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“…It has been shown in animal and more recently in human studies that nutrition is one of the most salient environmental factors, and that nutrition can have a direct effect on gene expression (Levi and Sanderson, 2004;Rosales et al, 2009;Attig et al, 2010;Lillycrop and Burdge, 2011;Jiménez-Chillarón et al, 2012). One of the first and best known human studies in the rapidly growing field of "Nutritional Epigenomics" relates to the Dutch Hunger Winter during the 1940's in which the offspring of mothers exposed to famine during pregnancy had an increased risk of cardiovascular, kidney, lung, and metabolic disorders and reduced cognitive functions (Roseboom et al, 2006;De Rooij et al, 2010). More specifically, evidence has been obtained of hypo-and hyper-methylated DNA segments from the blood cells of the affected individuals (Heijmans et al, 2008).…”

Section: Brain Development In Humansmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Nutrition in Children's Neurocognitive Development, From Pregnancy Through Childhood

Nyaradi¹,

Li²,

Hickling³

et al. 2015

Prenatal and Childhood Nutrition

129

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This review examines the current evidence for a possible connection between nutritional intake (including micronutrients and whole diet) and neurocognitive development in childhood. Earlier studies which have investigated the association between nutrition and cognitive development have focused on individual micronutrients, including omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, folic acid, choline, iron, iodine, and zinc, and single aspects of diet. The research evidence from observational studies suggests that micronutrients may play an important role in the cognitive development of children. However, the results of intervention trials utilizing single micronutrients are inconclusive. More generally, there is evidence that malnutrition can impair cognitive development, whilst breastfeeding appears to be beneficial for cognition. Eating breakfast is also beneficial for cognition. In contrast, there is currently inconclusive evidence regarding the association between obesity and cognition. Since individuals consume combinations of foods, more recently researchers have become interested in the cognitive impact of diet as a composite measure. Only a few studies to date have investigated the associations between dietary patterns and cognitive development. In future research, more well designed intervention trials are needed, with special consideration given to the interactive effects of nutrients.

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Prenatal undernutrition and cognitive function in late adulthood

Cited by 325 publications

References 38 publications

Birth Size and Brain Function 75 Years Later

Birth Size and Brain Function 75 Years Later

Childhood environmental harshness predicts coordinated health and reproductive strategies: A cross-sectional study of a nationally representative sample from France

The Role of Nutrition in Children's Neurocognitive Development, From Pregnancy Through Childhood

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