Maternal n‐3 docosahexaenoic acid in gestation is associated with better early language development in term gestation infants.

Abstract

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is an n‐3 fatty acid present in high amounts in structural lipids of the brain and retina where it plays key roles in neurogenesis and neurite outgrowth, and the visual transduction pathway. Inadequate dietary n‐3 fatty acids during development may have short and long‐term implications for brain development, but whether n‐3 fatty acid deficiency occurs among pregnant women sufficient to limit DHA transfer for optimum fetal brain development is unclear. We used a longitudinal intervention with 400mg/d DHA or placebo from 16 wk gestation until delivery, n=220, and assessed language development at 9 mths of age. DHA supplementation increased the maternal mean erythrocyte phosphatidylethanolamine DHA by 30% at 36 wk gestation. The ability to detect contrasting consonants not present in the native language(s) is present in young infants but lost with development, usually about 9 mth age. We assessed language development using infant‐controlled habituation procedures, as the ability to discriminate phonetic difference in a voiced English and Hindi contrast. More infants of mothers in the DHA supplement than placebo group were unable to distinguish the contrast, consistent with better language development in the supplement group. DHA status in pregnancy is to be important for early infant neural development, yet in some women poor DHA status may be limit infant development. Supported by CIHR.