Protein deficiency hinders brain development

Children with chronic protein deficiency are more prone to delays in brain and cognitive development that improve little over time. Child malnutrition, a major problem in our country, is associated with a wide range of cognitive defects in children. Chronic protein energy malnutrition, in particular, causes stunting and wasting in children that affects the ongoing development of higher cognitive processes during childhood (>5 years of age). To examine the effect of stunted growth on the rate of development of cognitive processes in children, researchers from India assessed the cognitive development of 20 malnourished children and 20 adequately nourished children at different ages. It was found that malnourished children performed poorly than adequately nourished children on most of the neuropsychological tests they were given. These children had problems with tests of attention, memory, visual perception, verbal comprehension and other higher cognitive processes. Moreover, minimal cognitive improvement was noted in malnourished children with age. The cognitive performance of malnourished 5- to 7-year-olds was poor and much lower than that of adequately nourished children of their age. The above findings support numerous other studies that have shown a wide range of cognitive deficits in malnourished children in India.

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