- Title
- Maternal nutrition and cognition
- Creator
- Taylor, Rachael M.; Smith, Roger; Collins, Clare E.; Hure, Alexis J.
- Relation
- Diet, Nutrition, and Fetal Programming p. 29-42
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60289-9_3
- Publisher
- Springer
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- Adequate nutrition during early life is essential to support the neurological processes that underlie human brain development and cognition. Children who fail to meet their cognitive potential achieve fewer schooling years and are at an increased risk of adult delinquency. Maximising child cognition through nutrition interventions hold major socioeconomic consequences for individuals and societies. Recent studies suggest that brain development and cognition can be modified by nutrient and gene interactions, a process called epigenetics. DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism that requires dietary nutrients to donate methyl groups to DNA nucleotides and modify the regulation of gene expression. Recent studies have demonstrated that epigenetic modifications mediated by DNA methylation can disrupt cell signalling molecules and increase neurotoxins in the brain which may affect cognitive function. Future research in this area is warranted to determine the critical role of early life nutrition on long-term brain future and inform dietary guidelines for pregnant women.
- Subject
- child; brain; cognition; development; DNA methylation; epigenetics; infant; nutrition; pregnancy; supplement
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1393916
- Identifier
- uon:33632
- Identifier
- ISBN:9783319602875
- Language
- eng
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