Maternal choline supplementation during the third trimester of pregnancy improves infant information processing speed: a randomized, double‐blind, controlled feeding study

This was a randomized, double-blind, controlled feeding study conducted at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in healthy third-trimester pregnant women. Their infants were then followed across the first year of life and assessed for information processing speed and predictive saccades; 13 participants were randomized per arm and 12 infants per arm were analyzed for cognition.

Pregnant participants in the third trimester received oral choline chloride supplementation during a controlled feeding regimen to reach total choline intakes of 480 mg/day or 930 mg/day until delivery. The supplement was mixed with cranberry-grape juice and administered in 50 mL color-coded tubes; the study diet supplied about 380 mg choline/day, with supplemental choline amounts of 100 mg/day or 550 mg/day to achieve the target totals.

Higher maternal choline intake during the third trimester improved infant information processing speed. The 930 mg/day group had mean saccade reaction times 22.6 ms faster than the 480 mg/day group (95% CI, 1.3 to 43.8; P = 0.03), and adjusted analyses showed an even larger benefit of 33.8 ms (95% CI, 2.7 to 54.8; P = 0.03). A dose-response analysis also found that days of prenatal exposure significantly affected saccade RT (P = 0.02), with an estimated choline dose effect of 51.3 ms (95% CI, 15.8 to 86.7). There was no effect on predictive saccades, and no adverse events were reported.

The trial was small, with only 12 infants analyzed per arm, which limits precision and generalizability. It was conducted in a tightly controlled feeding setting among healthy women, so applicability to typical dietary conditions or broader populations is uncertain. Follow-up focused on early infancy outcomes, and there was no observed benefit for predictive saccades.