Feeding the Future: How Nutrition Shapes Brain Development and Learning in Early Childhood and Beyond

In this episode of NNI Bites, Big Learnings featuring the NNI & WNSC Workshop 103, Professor Raanan Shamir interviews Dr. Sean Deoni about the critical role of nutrition in early brain development. Dr. Deoni explains that the brain grows by approximately a factor of three in the first two years of life, with myelination requiring a precise combination of fatty acids, DHA, choline, cholesterol, and — as revealed by the RESONANCE study — niacin, which supports both synaptic transmission and myelin synthesis. He concludes that nutrition's impact on neurodevelopment is both profound and modifiable, and that when paired with stimulation and responsive caregiving, optimal early nutrition offers significant potential to support children's long-term cognitive development.