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Nutrition and Behaviour Psychology - Part 3 Lecture Notes
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Nutrition and Behaviour Psychology - Part 3 Lecture Notes
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Nutrition and Behaviour13th February 2017
Lecture 3: Brain development and the perinatal diet
Perinatal Pertaining to the period immediately before and after birth.
Does what you eat as an infant have long term implications?
A Major Problem
75% of pre-school children in Asia, Africa and South America are underweight for their age. However, obesity and
overweight is also an issue but focus will be on malnutrition and the effects malnutrition has.
Kaplan (1972):
Winick et al. (1970): Jamaican babies who died of malnutrition had a low number of brain cells. 3/16 had less than
40% of the typical number. Suggests brain damage as a result of poor nutrition.
Naeye et al. (1969): Studied 252 babies from the USA and found that those from poor families had brains 15%
smaller. Sample was of infants who died close to birth so the sample was not randomly selected, may have been
other important variables involved. Additionally, it does not seem to be an extreme difference but it does show that
there is a phenomenon.
Studies above were not experimental designs, they were observations so not highly controlled or randomised, again
it is likely that those who are malnourished also have other aspects of their lives which may lead to the effects that
are being put down to malnutrition. For example the correlates below...
Correlates of malnutrition: These variables have been found to be highly correlated with malnutrition so it may be
these that are having an effect on what is being studied.
Disease
Infestation: Hook worm infection is associated with causing low levels of iron for example.
Foy and Kondi (1960): Investigated the relation between hookworm infection and anaemia. Hookworm results in
blood loss which causes depletion of iron stores and can lead to anaemia. (Can be used under iron deficiency later)
Lack of education: Schooling in developing countries is likely to be not as good.
Apathy of child/parent: Likely that the parent is also malnourished, malnourishment can lead to feelings of apathy,
loss of motivation etc. Child may then get less stimulation that what they require for successful development.
Lack of attention
Inactivity
Poor housing
Malnutrition is a difficult topic:
,Deficiency of what nutrient results in which form of damage? It is unlikely that poor diet would only result in a
deficiency of one nutrient, likely to be deficient in multiple aspects.
Timing of deficiency: There might be a critical or sensitive period in which malnutrition might have more serious
effects, this will be discussed further later on in the lecture.
Reference standards
How do you measure diet? Can be difficult to know exactly what nutrients have been taken as it is unlikely that there
will be food diaries of every item provided for each child.
How do you measure other factors such as infection/infestation/stimulation/mothers health etc? There may be
factors that have an impact but are not known by the researcher and so not be controlled.
What psychological measures do you use?
Arnhem
In the second World War, during Operation Market Garden, the Germans were systematically blowing up bridges to
prevent the raiding by the British and American. There was one bridge left and they decided to take it and hold it to
control British and American troops. Operation consisted of parachutes who tried to fall down and take the bridge. It
was a disaster.
The Dutch resistance tried to help by preventing reinforcements for the Germans, and so the Germans punished the
Dutch resistance by cutting off their supply of food and fuel shipments from farm areas.
, The graph above represents the weekly caloric rations and averages of z-scored linear measures of weight, length,
and head circumference at birth, for births in two institutions in the Western Netherlands between 1944 and 1946.
The vertical lines are the Kcal per day.
During the famine/ration cuts, calories decreased to as low as 500 calories a day. This resulted in serious illness.
As calorie intake decreased, there was a period of reduced weight, length and head circumference of the children
born to pregnant mothers who were suffering during this period.
Consequences of this malnutrition? The decreases in weight, length and head circumference may have been the
result of a factor other than the reduced calorie intake. For example, birth weight has been associated with prenatal
life event stress:
Pathik et al. (1993): A prospective investigation into the association between prenatal stress and infant birth weight.
90 women were assessed during the third trimester on measures of episodic and chronic stress, strain (a response to
stress) and pregnancy-related anxiety. Independent of biomedical risk, prenatal life event stress was associated with
a decrease in infant birth weight and increase in likelihood of a low birth weight.
So might not have been the malnutrition directly, but the stress of the situation that resulted in reduced birth weight
etc.
Transport embargo 1944-1945:
Precise famine for prescribed time
Mothers of those born in November 1945 had 672 calories per day during the first 3 months of pregnancy, 1762
during middle three months and 2090 during the last three months.
The UK recommendation is of 2140 calories a day for pregnant women.
Susser et al. (1992):
Measured the incidence of schizophrenia among children whose mothers, while pregnant, were having an intake of
different amounts of calories during the first three months of pregnancy.
The effects of a pregnant mother being grossly malnourished during the first three months.
Incidence of schizophrenia is about 1% in the general population.
Can see the relation more in females, but can see from the data that there was some nutritional influence on the
prevalence of schizophrenia.
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