Researchers examined whether intelligent babies become more highly achieving young adults.  The answer says Psychologist Joseph Fagan is “Yes”.

61 Babies tested in their first two years of life were revisited at age 21.  The researchers found that a baby’s early ability to process new information correlated with higher levels of academic achievement as a young adult.

Fagan said “intelligence is continuous from infancy to adulthood”.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090807120946.htm

Lead author Psychologist John Spencer says “People have tried for centuries to shift the debate one way or the other, and it’s just been a pendulum swinging back and forth. We’re taking the radical position that the smarter thing is to just say “neither” – to throw out the debate as it has been historically framed and embrace the alternative perspective provided by development systems theory.”
Development systems theory maintains that genes are expressed at every point in development and influenced or affected at all times by environmental factors, like diet, environmental toxins, parental behaviour and socioeconomic status of a family.

You can argue that this means of course that it is both nature and nurture but I agree that this statement is far too simple for the complexity of how genes and environment interacts to shape a developing child.

And so, we move on to argue the finer details of how not getting that favorite toy for Christmas is going to affect your child genetically.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090720163723.htm

Dr. Kelle Moley from the Washington University School of Medicine, found that the epigenetic changes that occur between ovulation and conception had a lasting effect on the health of the offspring. She believes we should now also re-direct our scrutiny of maternal health to the pre-pregnancy period.

Other findings were;

Mothers who had vitamin B12 and folic acid deficiencies had offspring who were fatter,

became insulin resistant and had higher blood pressure.

Low protein levels in the mother during the early months of conception led to abnormal growth, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and jumpy behaviour. The offspring also grew

bigger than average after birth, extracting as much nutrients as they can to make up for the lack of nutrition in the womb.

According to Shuk-meu Ho Ph.D from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center these early epigenetic changes or “memories” remain dormant until environmental influences activate them to alter the risk for disease.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090721122843.htm

The way in which genes are packaged is an epigenetic factor, for example the genes on the inside of a tightly wrapped string of DNA are hidden from transcription machinery and effectively switched off. This is a very important part of gene regulation and help to ensure that the correct genes are switched on or off.
The study authors will now investigate whether a fathers’ age or lifestyle can bring about changes to the way genes are packaged in sperm, exposing genes that were supposed to be hidden or switched off to be on or vice versa, and its possible influence on infertility.

Brad Cairns Ph.D says, “Our findings show that the father plays an active role in packaging his genome to help ensure a healthy baby. However, they also raise the possibility that a man’s aging, health and lifestyle may alter this packaging and negatively affect fertility and embryo development.”

Further work will also be done to investigate the packaging of genetic material inside the egg as this is currently also still a big mystery.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090614153253.htm

They found;

Offspring from mothers stressed before pregnancy showed reduced social contact.
Female offspring showed more symptoms of anxiety,
Rats whose mothers were stressed immediately before pregnancy were hyperactive.

I find this study interesting because Personality Disorders are often passed on to children from their parents. It was always assumed that these disorders are passed on to children solely because of how parents behaved towards their children, but where this theory falls short for example, is that children from parents that were refugees, can developed a personality disorder if their parent had it and yet did not experience the same amount as trauma as the parent?

Post Traumatic Stress unresolved can develop into a personality disorder. We may now have to consider whether, in addition to parental behaviour, epigenetic markings on genes to pregnancy can be passed on to a baby?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090512093301.htm

A new study on air pollution found that polluted air curb the normal growth of a developing baby. The authors suggest that it may alter cell activity or cut the amount of oxygen and nutrients the baby receives in the womb.

It is likely that the process of “cellular respiration” plays a role. Every breath of air you breathe is transported via the blood to the mitochondria in your cells. It is here that your cells use the oxygen to convert nutrients in your food to energy for your body to use. It is possible that air pollution cut the amount of oxygen a baby receives and thereby also the amount of nutrients resulting in the curb of normal growth.

Another breakthrough in the area of cellular respiration sheds more light on this issue. The study identified the gene Tfb1m responsible for regulating cellular respiration and their study showed that without this gene, cellular respiration was not possible. This raises the question whether pollutants in our air is possibly altering the expression of Tfb1m and in doing so reducing nutrients to a developing baby.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/145558.php

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/145627.php

Retinoic acid, produced in different areas of the embryo, help position and mature cells into various organs and body parts. Researchers found that in having to detoxify the alcohol, the embryo is deprived of molecules that produce Retinoic acid. The study found that in preventing normal production of Retinoic acid, the alcohol prevents cells from moving to their correct positions and maturing properly.

“This provides evidence that alcohol hijacks RALDH2 molecules for its own breakdown process and steals it away from its important role of synthesizing positional and maturation cues during development.”

Don’t make things harder for your baby, help him to develop the best possible epigenome that he can by keeping alcohol and other toxins out of his environment.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090406072910.htm”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090406072910.htm

The latest finding in a string of interesting studies on the human brain showed that intelligence is strongly influenced by the integrity of the brain’s wiring. The quality of the brain’s axons (thickness of the myelin that encases the neurons) determines the speed messages are sent throughout the brain.

Faster signaling indicate higher IQ and slower signaling lower IQ, the quality of these axons are genetic.
Another study measured the thickness of the cortical grey matter of the brain and also linked this to higher intelligence, speculating that cortical thickness could reflect more complex connections between nerve cells.

A third study on astrocytes, addressed an area in the brain largely ignored by scientists because up until recently they lacked the technology to research these areas in the brain. Neuroscientist Maiken Nedergaard M.D. from University of Rochester Medical Center devised a new way to listen for astrocyte activity by measuring the amount of calcium inside the cells. Although astrocytes function slower than neurons Nedergaard argues that it may be able to process information and memories in a more sophisticated manner.

Nedergaard said “…our study suggests that astrocytes are part of the higher cognitive functioning that defines who we are as humans.” Quantity of astrocytes is also associated with IQ, more indicating higher IQ and less lower IQ. We can also speculate that quality will also be a determining factor. Richard Haier of the University of California Irvine said “Just because intelligence is strongly genetic, that doesn’t mean it cannot be improved. It’s just the opposite, if it’s genetic, it’s biochemical and we have all kinds of ways of influencing biochemistry.”

What this means is that if your child is struggling with his maths, your first step in helping him/her is to check their diet. Genes are influenced by food and by cutting out fast foods, soda’s (diet and sugary drinks) fatty foods, high glycemic carbohydrates, including brain foods in their diet and cleaning up his environment etc. you may be able to save yourself a stack of money in maths tutoring. Does this let you off the hook during pregnancy, definitely not; you can help your child develop the best possible brain that he can, by creating the right conditions during your pregnancy. Even if you can biochemically alter genes after birth, it would be highly unlikely that you will ever again in your child’s life, have as much of an influence on his genes, as you do while you are pregnant.

We know that the dopamine D1 receptors that promote memory can be increased by strenuous learning. However if you want your child to be able to think outside the box, to have creative mental capabilities that surpass that of the reciting of encyclopedias, you can begin to help them achieve this during your pregnancy.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090317142841.htm”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090323134311.htm”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090325132531.htm”

The researchers also found that children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy, but did not have the mutated versions of these genes fared better than children of mother’s who also smoked during pregnancy and had the mutated versions of these genes.

Dr Carrie Breton from the University of South California said, “[These}…genes are important to the detoxification of reactive oxygen species, including carcinogen and environmental exposures, such as cigarette smoke. We speculate that the patterns of genetic variation we investigated may alter this process, thereby reducing the lung’s ability to detoxify harmful agents and causing a cascade of other events that promote inflammation, bronchial constriction, airway hyper-responsiveness and asthma-like symptoms.”

This means that the person who smokes and still lives till 90 have the protective version of these genes and those that contract lung disease most likely had the mutated versions of these genes, providing them with less protection.

You can help your baby during pregnancy by eating foods that help repair DNA,
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Genetics/GeneralGenetics/13461″

Mice without the AMPK gene had a 50% reduction in overall brain size, “…the cerebrum and cerebellum were shrunken and the mice died within three weeks of birth.” AMPK was essential to the central nervous system. Lead author Biplab Dasgupta PhD points out an interesting link between AMPK and exercise in a previous study. “Exercise activates AMPK and improves cognitive function. Our results suggest brain function may improve because additional activated AMPK makes it easier for adult neural stem cells to reproduce and become new brain cells.”

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/142038.php