4. Any information that is not in line with that you have learned before?

One of studies in India showed that while stunted children had

significantly poorer performance on short-term memory, retrieval
ability and visuospatial ability tests, There was no significant difference
in the change in cognitive scores following nutritional interventions
over a 6-month period between those who remained stunted and those
who were no longer stunted. So, Catch-up growth does not associate
with cognitive development in Indian school-age children.

A study in Post-Institutionalized Children from Eastern Europe showed

that there was no association between iron status and cognitive
abilities at baseline. The absence of distinction between iron deficient
and iron sufficient children at baseline could be due to both groups
having other dominant risk factors soon after adoption, such as
macronutrient malnutrition and lack of psychosocial stimulation during
institutionalization. However, those who remained iron deficient or
developed iron deficiency between baseline and follow-up tended to
score below average on the Mullen Early Learning Composite at followup. Due to this finding, it is recommended that iron status be followedup at least through the first 6 months.

There is strong relationship between parasite infections and cognitive

impairment in children, not only because of the higher absenteeism
from school due to illness. A study among Filipino children provides
strong evidence of association between helminth infections and
learning ability, memory, and verbal fluency in children after
controlling for effects of important confounders including SES,
nutritional status, age, sex, and presence of other intestinal parasites.
Their finding in the learning domain is congruent with what has been
demonstrated in animal models for other kinds of helminth infections.
In two such studies, infection with the helminths Strongyloides

ratti and Toxocara canis were associated with poor performance on

spatial learning tasks in mice. They are aware of only two human
studies in Tanzania and China that reported associations between
schistosomiasis infection and any domain of cognitive performance.
Unlike their study, both groups found associations between tests of
memory and schistosomiasis infection. Specifically, Jukes and
others found that high-intensity infection with S. haematobium was
associated with cognitive impairment in verbal and short-term memory
domains among school age children in Tanzania. In a subset of younger
children in China, Nokes and others found associations between
treatment of S. japonicum and improvements in tests of memory (free
recall, fluency, and picture search tests).