Prenatal Folate and Choline Levels and Brain and Cognitive Development in Children: A Critical Narrative Review

Women’s nutritional status during pregnancy can have long-term effects on children’s brains and cognitive development. Folate and choline are methyl-donor nutrients and are important for closure of the neural tube during fetal development. They have also been associated with brain and cognitive development in children. Animal studies have observed that prenatal folate and choline supplementation is associated with better cognitive outcomes in offspring and that these nutrients may have interactive effects on brain development. Although some human studies have reported associations between maternal folate and choline levels and child cognitive outcomes, results are not consistent, and no human studies have investigated the potential interactive effects of folate and choline. This lack of consistency could be due to differences in the methods used to assess folate and choline levels, the gestational trimester at which they were measured, and lack of consideration of potential confounding variables. This narrative review discusses and critically reviews current research examining the associations between maternal levels of folate and choline during pregnancy and brain and cognitive development in children. Directions for future research that will increase our understanding of the effects of these nutrients on children’s neurodevelopment are discussed.

A Matter of Time: Father Involvement and Child Cognitive Outcomes

Fathers in Western countries allocate progressively more time to childcare. However, most research on how parental time inputs affect child development focuses on maternal time, and it remains empirically unclear how paternal involvement in the child’s upbringing influences child outcomes. This study provides the first systematic account of how father-child time (in total and across activity types) relates to children’s cognitive development, measured using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. In addition, it examines whether and how paternal education moderates these associations. To accomplish this, the study uses unique, longitudinal, time-diary data from an Australian sample of children aged 4-8 years (Longitudinal Study of Australian Children; n=3,273 children/6,960 observations). Results show that the total amount of father-child time is associated with small improvements in children’s cognitive functioning, whereas the amount of father-child time in educational activities is associated with moderate-to-large improvements. Such associations are similar for highly and less-highly educated fathers.