Maternal intelligence will transmit to offspring during gestation by epigenetically or by maternal experiences. if suppose intelligence is transmitted via germ cell then how maternal experiences influences on offspring intelligence? or via epigenetic mechanism means maternal intelligence will carried to progeny until the pregnancy?
if suppose mother starts learning music or learning music instrument for the first time during her pregnancy period then how it will influence to her baby's postnatal interest of music or learning music instrument, and what is the mechanism behind this and how this music interest might have transmit to neonatal baby?
Dear Sakthivel,
I want to give two contributions but I dont know the epigenetic pathways.
Laplante et al. (2008) demonstrated that children exposed in utero to high levels of stress had lower Full Scale IQs, Verbal IQs, and language abilities compared to children exposed to low or moderate levels of prenatal maternal stress.
Slykerman et al. (2014) showed prenatal maternal stress due to a natural disaster explains variance in the intellectual and language performance of offspring at age 5(1/2) while controlling for several potential confounding variables.
Laplante DP, Brunet A, Schmitz N, Ciampi A, King S. Project Ice Storm: prenatal maternal stress affects cognitive and linguistic functioning in 5 1/2-year-old children. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2008 Sep;47(9):1063-72. doi: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e31817eec80. PubMed PMID: 18665002.
Slykerman RF, Thompson J, Waldie K, Murphy R, Wall C, Mitchell EA. Maternal stress during pregnancy is associated with moderate to severe depression in 11-year-old children. Acta Paediatr. 2014 Aug 31. doi: 10.1111/apa.12787. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 25174703.
greetings Egon
Very complex topic!
Intelligence is one of the most difficult things to work on as the definition of intelligence is very controversial. Most studies related to epigenetic inheritance of polygenic traits (Intelligence being one of these) were conducted in inbred mice (same genetics, same environment=cage). Clearly Lab-mice are a suboptimal choice to study intelligence. I believe many of the effects on complex traits seen in studies on epigenetics can only be seen as the animals are so extremely similar. So the system is biassed to emphasize the impact. In humans, the situation is much more complex and I do not see any chance to verify any mouse data concerning epigenetic influences in humans. My feeling(!) is the relevance of epigenetics is clearly there, but may be overrated currently because most data is based on mice. I think there is a real risk of overburdening yourself with all kind of responsibilities for an unborn child when you take all the, partially anecdotal, claims in the literature for granted. All this "prenatal Mozart" may be nice, but the actual value is not proven (to my knowledge). Sure, stimulation helps intellectual development. However, until birth the brain is still developing and highly plastic (not wired up completely) and the early postnatal phase may be just as critical (if not more) than prenatal. But one has to keep things in perspective. Its not all about maximising future success for a child, by optimizing development. Being a caring , loving family may be at least as important, as success in life is not only determined by IQ but also by endurance, persistence, diligence and emotional stability.... in short, its difficult.
If you are asking about nuts-and-bolts epigenetic mechanisms on environmental factors (like music), on epigenetic inheritance I do not think there are any data out there beyond speculation.
Take care,
Thomas
HI Vitek.
I need one clarification. Any job doing with interest means which is won't be stressful experience right?
Hello Thomos,
My curiosity is to know about gestational experience how it influence on offspring or its not influencing and its mechanism, how it passes from mother to child.
Sakthivel,
Epigenetic changes modulate gene expression. I am not sure how well we understand brain development, and which parts of the wireing of neurons is affected by gene expression. Clearly gene expression has to play a role as neurotransmitters (made by enzymes, which are encoded by genes which can be regulatede epigenetically) and their receptors have to be produced, and as Egon above pointed out, gestational experience has effects, if this is through epigenteics or other mechanisms is hard to tell. Stress levels could act through cortisol and its receptor GR (Glucocorticoid receptor) which is a DNA binding transcription factor, but also recruits coregulatory complexes(HDAC's/HAT's), which alter the epigenetic state of the cell. Again, this will change brain wiring. But in detail nobody knows. I am not sure what precisely you mean using the term "maternal intelligence"? From your last post, I take it you are talking about EXPERIENCE? not INTELLIGENCE? Ok , sorry, then my first post was totally off topic.
Hello Thomas,
I am talking about here (maternal intelligence or experience) on learning new things during the gestational period... and what would be the possible effect of same on the offspring..