Heavier Children Are Smarter?

Scientists once again explored the relationship between the formation of the child’s brain in the womb and his intelligence in the future. The specialists paid special attention to the weight of a newborn baby.

The study involved 628 Americans between the ages of 3 to 21 years. All of them were healthy and had had no abnormalities in weight at birth. The scientists were watching these people for many years.

It turned out that the area of ​​cerebral cortex, its thickness, and the volume of the brain of a newborn baby were dependent on its birth weight. Thus, the children weighing 4 pounds or more at birth had a relatively large brain. Parts of the brain responsible for decision making and information processing were especially developed.

The leader of the study Kristine Beate Walhovd notes that even small differences in birth weight may affect the characteristics and functioning of the brain. However, this difference is noticeable, as a rule, only in childhood and adolescence, and when the person grows up, the relationship between birth weight and brain function is lost.