Mothers who enjoyed stimulating childhood 'have brainier babies'

Mothers who enjoyed stimulating childhood 'have brainier babies'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:34 AM on 04th February 2009

A mother's childhood experiences may influence not only her own brain development but also that of her sons and daughters, a study suggests.

Researchers in the US found that a stimulating environment early in life improved the memory of female mice with a genetic learning defect.

This was an expected result which supported previous research. What was surprising was that after becoming adults, the mice appeared to transmit the beneficial effects of their childhood experience to their own offspring.


A new study has found that a mother's childhood experiences may influence the brain development of her sons and daughters

The newborn mice inherited the same genetic problem, but like their mothers were not impaired by it.

Dr Dean Hartley, one of the researchers from Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago said: 'What is so unique about this study is that we provided an enriched environment during pre-adolescence, months before the mice became pregnant, yet the beneficial effect reached into the next generation.

'The offspring had improved memory even without an enriched environment.'

The findings imply that the severity of childhood learning disorders may be affected by what an individual's mother experienced as a child, the scientists said.

When the mother mice had not yet reached adolescence they spent two weeks in an enriched environment which included stimulation by novel objects, social interaction, and voluntary exercise. At the end of this time their memory defect was reversed.

The scientists were careful to take account of the fact that mice with such a background might turn out to be more nurturing mothers.

They did this by allowing some of the second generation mice to be raised by foster mothers lacking the same early enrichment experience. It made no difference, even these mice, like their biological mothers, were able to overcome their inherited learning defect.

The researchers reported their results today in The Journal of Neuroscience. They believe the phenomenon can be explained by epigenetics - environmentally-induced changes in the structure of DNA and chromosomes which are passed on to offspring.

Commenting on the study, Dr Anthony Hannan, an epigenetics expert from the University of Melbourne in Australia, said: 'This study and others are revolutionising our understanding of how nature, starting with an individual's DNA sequence, and nurture, including the way life experience alters the way DNA is expressed, can combine.

'Not only to regulate the health of subsequent generations, but also possibly the incidence of disease.'

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1135509/Mothers-enjoyed-stimulating-childhood-brainier-babies.html