Some interesting social implications here I would think. One of the
first comments to this article was particularly interesting to me.
Would better working brains require better working body parts? ie.
would your lungs need to be better at inserting oxygen into your blood?
Maybe these people wouldn't be able to climb a mountain, due to
abnormal (to us) amounts of oxygen needed to stay alive. This man seems
to think so and is willing to help you become tarzan even. More links
in the comments section of the actual article (see url at beginning of
article below), but first a comment from the tarzan man:
'''''''
Re: Prenatal choline supplements make baby's brain cells bigger, faster
(Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Sunday, March 14 @ 04:28:15 EST
Yes, they are correct. But a brain that is pumped up needs for more
OXYGEN and in today's World we aren't getting it. My research has shown
that the increase in rates of MENTAL ILLNESS is stemming from smart
people who are oxygen deprived. Brain cells starved for adequate oxygen
go nuts. The widespread bipolar, panic attacks, and other weird
behaviours will only increase unless our homes get changed
(http://www.newpath4.com/AAINDEX/paget6.htm), and our lives
(http://www.newpath4.com/newpath_newlife.html) . THEN YOU CAN GIVE THE
PREGNANT MOMS MORE THAN CHOLINE. For starters and if we REALLY WANT a
generation of superbabies, pregnancies would be given daily hyperbaric
treatments to super-oxygenate the fetus AND the Mom. "Woodrow Riley" -
AskInventor - Google me for more pages.
http://www.newpath4.com/theanswer.html &
http://www.newpath4.com/theanswer2.html support this line of reasoning.
######### BEGIN ARTICLE ##################
http://www.scienceblog.com/community/article2464.html
Prenatal choline supplements make baby's brain cells bigger, faster
Posted on Friday, March 12 @ 13:10:48 EST by bjs
>From Duke University:
Prenatal Choline Supplements Make Brain Cells Larger, Faster
The important nutrient choline "super-charged" the brains of animals
that received supplements in utero, making their cells larger and faster
at firing electrical "signals" that release memory-forming chemicals,
according to a new study.
These marked brain changes could explain earlier behavioral studies in
which choline improved learning and memory in animals, say the
researchers from the departments of pharmacology and psychiatry at Duke
University Medical Center and from the Durham VA Medical Center.
The implications for humans are profound, said the researchers, because
the collective data on choline suggests that simply augmenting the diets
of pregnant women with this one nutrient could affect their children's
lifelong learning and memory. In theory, choline could boost cognitive
function, diminish age-related memory decline, and reduce the brain's
vulnerability toxic insults.
The Duke group is part of a national team of scientists who are
exploring the benefits of prenatal choline supplementation on learning
and memory. This ongoing research has been instrumental in the Institute
of Medicine's decision to elevate choline to the status of an essential
nutrient for humans -- particularly pregnant and nursing women, the
scientists said.
Results of their study, led by Qiang Li, M.D., of Duke and the Durham
VAMC, will be published in the April issue of Journal of Neurophysiology.
"Previous studies at Duke have shown that choline-supplemented animals
are smarter and have a greater learning capacity, but we hadn't known
until now whether the cells that make up memory-relevant brain circuits
are changed by choline" said Li. "Choline didn't just change the general
environment of the brain, it changed the fundamental building blocks of
brain circuits -- the cells themselves."
Choline is a naturally occurring nutrient found in egg yolks, milk,
nuts, fish, liver and other meats as well as in human breast milk. It is
the essential building block for a memory-forming brain chemical called
acetylcholine, and it plays a vital role in the formation of cell
membranes throughout the body.
In the current study, the researchers explored the effects of choline on
neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region that is critical for learning
and memory. They fed pregnant rats extra amounts of choline during a
brief but critical window of pregnancy, then studied how their
hippocampal neurons differed from those of control rats.
The researchers found that hippocampal neurons were larger, and they
possessed more tentacle-like "dendrites" that reach out and receive
signals from neighboring neurons.
"Having more dendrites means that a neuron has more surface area to
receive incoming signals," said Scott Swartzwelder, Ph.D., senior author
of the study and a neuropsychologist at Duke and the Durham VA Medical
Center. "This could make it easier to push the neuron to the threshold
for firing its signal to another neuron." When a neuron fires a signal,
it releases brain chemicals called "neurotransmitters" that trigger
neighboring neurons to react. As neurons successively fire, one to the
next, they create a neural circuit that can process new information, he
said.
Not only were neurons structured with more dendrites, they also "fired"
electrical signals more rapidly and sustained their firing for longer
periods of time, the study showed. The neurons also rebounded more
easily from their resting phase in between firing signals. These
findings complement a previous study by this group showing that neurons
from supplemented animals were less susceptible to insults from toxic
drugs that are known to kill neurons.
Collectively, these behaviors should heighten the neurons' capacity to
accept, transmit and integrate incoming information, said Swartzwelder.
"We've seen before that the brains of choline-supplemented rats have a
greater plasticity -- or an ability to change and react to stimuli more
readily than normal rats -- and now we are beginning to understand why,"
he said.
The researchers demonstrated these neuronal behaviors by placing tiny
electrodes within the neurons. Then, they prompted neurons to fire
signals by changing the electrical voltage across the cells, (called
depolarization). As neurons began to fire, they measured their firing
rates and the recovery interval between each firing.
"Overall, we found that neurons in choline-exposed rats were more
excitable, more robust in their physiologic response," said Wilkie
Wilson, Ph.D., a Duke pharmacologist and member of the team at the
Durham VAMC. "We've demonstrated a measurable change in brain cells
prompted by moderate amounts of choline given during a narrow window of
prenatal development."
Biochemical studies on the brain effects of choline at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Boston University have complemented
the Duke findings, Wilson said.
Steven Zeisel, M.D.,at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
has demonstrated that choline alters a gene called CDKN-3 by adding a
"methyl group" of atoms to the gene. The methyl group switches off the
gene and, in doing so, uninhibits the cell division process in the
memory centers of the brain.
Tiffany Mellott and Jan Krzysztof Blusztajn, Ph.D., at Boston University
-- in collaboration with Christina Williams, Ph.D., and Warren Meck,
Ph.D., at Duke, -- recently found that two hippocampal proteins known to
participate in learning and memory, called MAPK and CREB, are activated
to a greater extent in the animals prenatally supplemented with choline.
These studies provide biochemical correlates to the new data reported by
the Swartzwelder group.
Their collective research is funded by a program project grant from the
National Institute on Aging. Swartzwelder and Wilson also received VA
Senior Research Career Scientist awards.
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