TY - JOUR
T1 - Prenatal undernutrition and cognitive function in late adulthood
AU - de Rooij, Susanne R.
AU - Wouters, Hans
AU - Yonker, Julie E.
AU - Painter, Rebecca C.
AU - Roseboom, Tessa J.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - the end of World War II, a severe 5-mo famine struck the cities in the western part of The Netherlands. At its peak, the rations dropped to as low as 400 calories per day. In 1972, cognitive performance in 19-y-old male conscripts was reported not to have been affected by exposure to the famine before birth. In the present study, we show that cognitive function in later life does seem affected by prenatal undernutrition. We found that at age 56 to 59, men and women exposed to famine during the early stage of gestation performed worse on a selective attention task, a cognitive ability that usually declines with increasing age. We hypothesize that this decline may be an early manifestation of an accelerated cognitive aging process
AB - the end of World War II, a severe 5-mo famine struck the cities in the western part of The Netherlands. At its peak, the rations dropped to as low as 400 calories per day. In 1972, cognitive performance in 19-y-old male conscripts was reported not to have been affected by exposure to the famine before birth. In the present study, we show that cognitive function in later life does seem affected by prenatal undernutrition. We found that at age 56 to 59, men and women exposed to famine during the early stage of gestation performed worse on a selective attention task, a cognitive ability that usually declines with increasing age. We hypothesize that this decline may be an early manifestation of an accelerated cognitive aging process
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1009459107
DO - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1009459107
M3 - Article
C2 - 20837515
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 107
SP - 16881
EP - 16886
JO - PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
JF - PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
IS - 39
ER -