Yet Another Study on DHA and Cognitive Development

The most recent edition of the journal Child Development is packed full of great articles on topics very relevant to many parents. I'll be highlighting some of these articles in upcoming posts including more research on TV/videos and their impact on language development and parent-child interactions. Today, however, I'd like to highlight an article that looks at the connection between DHA (a polyunsaturated fatty acid) and cognitive development in infants and toddlers.

DHA has been in the news a lot in recent years because some studies have shown that infants and children who receive it in their diets have increased cognitive development. The research, however, hasn't always been clear cut and some studies showed no significant advantages for those children receiving DHA.

Breastmilk is a natural source of DHA for infants, especially if the mother eats a balanced diet with adequate amounts of fatty acids (from things like salmon or walnuts). Until recently, however, many infant formulas did not contain DHA. When research studies started showing benefits of DHA, many formula companies jumped on the bandwagon and have begun including DHA in their products. In fact, you've probably noticed DHA popping up in all sorts of children's foods like milk and juice.

You may wonder whether this is just another marketing ploy or whether DHA really does have some benefits for children's cognitive development. This recent study in Child Development offers further evidence that DHA is linked to cognitive advantages, at least among infants. Here's a quick review of the study:

- 229 infants were fed either traditional formula or formula with added DHA

- the infants were given the formula at different points in development: (1) shortly after birth, (2) after 6 weeks of breastfeeding, or (3) after 4-6 months of breastfeeding

- at 9 months of age the infants were given a problem solving task to do which involved several steps to obtain a rattle

-results showed that infants who were fed formula with added DHA performed better on the problem solving task and showed more intentional behavior compared to infants fed traditional formula

The authors point out that performance on the type of problem solving task they used in this study has been linked to IQ and vocabulary at later ages so these findings may imply that DHA has long-term impacts on cognitive ability beyond infancy.

It is important to note that all the infants in this study were fed formula. This was NOT a comparison between formula-fed and breastfed babies. The goal of this study was to assess whether formula supplemented with DHA was linked to any cognitive advantages over non-DHA formula. The authors point out that the amount of DHA typically found in breastmilk is even higher than that found in DHA-added formula.

Although this is only one study, it provides further evidence that DHA is linked to better cognitive ability in infants. While it is not yet clear that DHA-supplemented foods benefit older children, this type of research suggests that it might. Hopefully in the years ahead more and more research will be conducted to test just that.

For more information check out the press release.

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Child Psychology Classics: The Mirror Test

At some point or another many parents have placed their infant in front of a mirror and wondered if their child could understand that it was their own reflection they were seeing. Based on the infant's reaction, most parents realize pretty quickly that their baby doesn't really understand that it is themselves in the mirror. This raises the question of when do babies and young children begin to develop a sense of self? Child psychologists have used this mirror test in a creative way to help uncover the answer to this question.

In a classic psychological experiment in the 1970s, researchers took a group of children ages 6 to 24 months and placed a spot of lipstick on their noses. They then placed the children in front of a mirror to see how they responded. Here's what they found:

- Young infants (age 6-12 months) seem to think the baby in the mirror is another baby. They smile and approach the baby in a friendly way.

- Older babies (age 13-24 months) respond with a little more hesitation at this point. Researchers aren't sure if the children know that the reflection is themselves or whether they still think it is another child.

- Toddlers (age 20-24 months) seem to clearly recognize that the reflection in the mirror is their own. The clear sign of this is that while looking in the mirror, they touch the dot of lipstick on their own nose instead of touching the mirror.

Of course, the results of this mirror test are not clear cut. Just because a toddler recognizes themselves in the mirror doesn't necessarily mean they have a mental concept of themselves. It may simply mean that by this age they have enough visual maturity to distinguish themselves in the mirror. Other, more complex studies would have to be conducted to determine when the mental concept of the self emerges.
Interestingly, animal studies have shown that some of the more intelligent mammals such as elephants, dolphins, and chimpanzees also recognize themselves in the mirror. Does this mean that these animals have a mental concept of "the self?" Who knows? It seems unlikely but maybe so. All these animals have fairly complex social systems so maybe they do have a concept of self.

Could you tell when your child started to develop a concept of themselves? How could you tell?

For more info check out this article.

Photo credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/guruscotty/3733000393/

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