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Breastfeeding leads to higher IQ
Nov 10, 2007: Scientists have identified a gene which leads children to have higher IQs if
they are breastfed, according to a study.
The study took a bite out of
the nature versus nurture debate by showing that intellectual development is
influenced by both environmental and genetic factors.
"There has been
some criticism of earlier studies about breastfeeding and IQ that they didn't
control for socioeconomic status, or the mother's IQ or other factors," said
study co-author Terrie Moffitt, a professor of psychological and brain sciences
at Duke University and King's College in London.
"Our findings take an
end-run around those arguments by showing the physiological mechanism that
accounts for the difference."
Researchers examined more than 3,000
breast-fed infants in Britain and New Zealand and found that the child's IQ was
an average of 6.8 points higher if the child had a particular version of a gene
called FADS2.
This difference remained after researchers were able to
rule out the influence of socioeconomic status, the IQ scores of the mother,
birth weight and gestational age as factors.
"The argument about
intelligence has been about nature versus nurture for at least a century,"
Moffitt said. "We're finding that nature and nurture work
together."
Ninety percent of the children had at least one copy of
version of the gene which yielded higher IQ if they were breast-fed.
The
IQ scores of the other 10 percent were not influenced by breastfeeding,
according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.
The gene was studied because it produces an enzyme found in
breast milk which has been associated with higher IQ. The enzyme helps convert
dietary fatty acids into the polyunsaturated fatty acids that have been shown to
accumulate in the human brain during the first months after birth. The News
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| Education News | | Updated: 25 May, 2012 |
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