DHAKA: A research claimed that women who exercise in pregnancy boost the brain development of their newborn babies and the effect could benefit children for the rest of their lives.

Babies` brains showed more mature patterns of activity, linked to better mental performance in later life, when their mothers took at least three 20-minute sessions of moderate exercise a week.

The early stage findings are the first from a randomized controlled trial in humans to show that a pregnant mother`s exercise routine could have such an impact on her baby`s brain.

"The babies born from mothers who were physically active have a more mature cerebral activation, suggesting that their brains developed more rapidly," said Labonte-LeMoyne, who described the study at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego.

"This is important to look at at this stage in their development, because the ability to discriminate sounds is the basis of learning to speak and to understand the sounds around you," she added.

According to the research, in the eight to 12 days after the babies were born, the researchers measured their brain activity.

Using a hairnet of 124 electrodes, they recorded electroencephalograms (EEG) while they played sleeping babies a series of beeps interspersed with different sounds.

Even though the babies were asleep, patterns in their brain activity showed how efficiently they could discriminate between old and novel sounds.

More developed brains find the task easier than less mature ones.

Source: the Guardian

BDST: 1545 HRS, NOV 13, 2013
MJM/GR/RoR/BSK