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

Feeding the Future:  

How Nutrition Shapes Brain Development & Learning in Early Childhood & Beyond. 

The vast majority of research exploring the importance of early childhood nutrition has focused on the early postnatal period - the first 1000 days - with relatively few investigations of how nutritional needs change throughout childhood and early adolescence, from ages 2 through 10. 

While brain development is most rapid over the first two years of life, childhood and early adolescence are also dynamic periods of growth and development, characterized by rapid physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development. Throughout this period, brain structure and function continue to mature in response to increasing environmental experiences, such as the introduction of formal schooling, new peer social interactions and settings, and greater exploration of the structural, socioemotional, and other environmental contexts. Responding to these environmental stimuli, neurological systems continue to mature via processes that include synaptogenesis (and synaptic pruning) and myelination, with this ongoing refinement underlying and contributing to the emergence of higher-order cognitive skills, such as executive function skills and abstract thinking. 

Not surprisingly, the shift from rapid neuroanatomical growth and system development in early infancy to the slower maturation and refinement during childhood (and later reorganization during early adolescence) requires changing nutritional needs. Examining the temporal changes in nutrient->brain correlations we have found that the early requirements for LC-PUFAs (in particular, DHA), phospholipids (with emphasis on sphingolipids and sphingomyelin that make up much of the brain’s lipid-rich white matter), iron, choline, folic acid, and other B-complex vitamins shift towards a greater emphasis on amino acids, alongside fatty acids and carbohydrates. This change in needs also corresponds to a general shift in diet and dietary sources (i.e., the shift from breastfeeding or formula milk to solid foods). 

Early adolescence introduces a second sensitive period of brain maturation and plasticity, driven by puberty-related hormonal changes. This period is marked neuroanatomically by significant structural and functional reorganization, particularly within the frontal brain regions that act as the hub for executive functions. As with the changes from infancy to childhood, the shift from late childhood to adolescence also marks a period of significant nutrient changes. Whilst lipids remain important for white matter organization, the needs for iron, calcium, vitamin D, and folate increase significantly. 

In this presentation, we will examine these temporal changes and how the brain’s nutritional needs ebb and flow from infancy through early adolescence. Complementing nutritional intake information with neuroimaging and broad cognitive assessments in a large typically-developing longitudinal child cohort, we will examine the role of nutrition to the emergence and development of the brain’s white matter (i.e., myelination), and the concomitant associations to evolving cognitive functions and academic skills.