ScienCentral has an article about a study I mentioned in last month's news, about how prenatal exposure to pollutants can affect children's cognitive development.

And a different and unexpected slant on the "Mozart effect" -- in an opthalmological study, patients who listened to a Mozart sonata for 10 minutes beforehand performed better on an eye test than those who waited in silence. Do note that there is nothing to say that Mozart had anything to do with it, since there was no musical comparison; indeed, any relaxing distraction may have done as well. It is interesting, however, to note that performance on an eye test could be affected by any such intervention.

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It's interesting to note another study indicating the value of calorie restriction in slowing aging. The implications for age-related cognitive impairment aren't simply the apparent effects on physical disorders such as cardiovascular problems, that we know affect cognition. It may be that there is a more direct effect as well, since it now appears that calorie restriction also directly affects primary markers of aging. A new study involving people between 25 and 45 may tell us more.

3 longitudinal studies -- the Scottish Mental Survey; the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (US); the National Education Longitudinal Study -- have all found that mental abilities remain remarkably stable throughout life. Now a new study suggests that these abilities can be measured in babies as young as 4 months. Researchers do not, however, conclude from this that adult intelligence is set from birth (or indeed, conception) -- there is plenty of evidence that training can alter these measures. What they do suggest is that our education systems lock in early cognitive potential -- to the detriment, of course, to all those who don't show pramise at an early age.