Carol L CheathamUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | UNC · Department of Psychology
Carol L Cheatham
Ph.D.
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57
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Introduction
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July 2008 - present
Publications
Publications (57)
Background
Several innate and environmental factors affect the rate and degree of cognitive decline with each factor representing a potentially valuable intervention point to slow progression of this decline. Serum urate, a product of purine metabolism and potent antioxidant, and weight loss have been associated with cognitive decline. The aim of t...
Background
As the sector of the population over 65y increases, cognitive decline and dementia become a public health issue. Interventions to improve brain health and thus, quality of life for older adults are needed.
Objective
It was hypothesized that those consuming a flavonoid-rich, lyophilized wild blueberry powder would evidence improvements i...
Inflammation during pregnancy is beginning to be understood as a risk factor predicting poor infant health and neurodevelopmental outcomes. The long-term sequelae associated with exposure to prenatal inflammation are less well established. The current study examined associations between maternal inflammation during pregnancy, markers of infant neur...
Age-related cognitive changes can be the first indication of the progression to dementias, such as Alzheimer’s disease. These changes may be driven by a complex interaction of factors including diet, activity levels, genetics, and environment. Here we review the evidence supporting relationships between flavonoids, physical activity, and brain func...
With the aging of the United States population, age-related cognitive disorders will be more prevalent and will negatively impact society. Differences in factors within and among individuals that influence cognitive decline complicate studies on the topic. One difference among individuals - gut microbiome diversity and composition - changes within...
Objective: Inflammation during pregnancy is beginning to be understood as a risk factor predicting poor infant health and neurodevelopmental outcomes. The long-term sequelae associated with exposure to prenatal inflammation are less well established. The current study tests the associations between maternal inflammation during pregnancy, markers of...
Fetal and infant brain development determine the trajectory of the organism across the lifespan. Optimal maternal and infant nutrition during the period of rapid brain development is vital to the integrity of the neural substrate for subsequent lifelong functions. The goal of this review is to educate the reader on the effects of fetal and infant n...
The dietary omega‐6 (n‐6) to omega‐3 (n‐3) fatty acid (FA) ratio (n‐6/n‐3 ratio) has been shown to predict planning abilities in children 7 to 12 years old. We previously demonstrated that a balanced n‐6/n‐3 ratio and n‐3 intake (e.g., low n‐3 intake with a low n‐6/n‐3 ratio) predicted better performance on difficult planning problems in 7‐ to 9‐ye...
Background:
Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids (FAs) and their ratio have been shown to affect cognitive function in children and older adults. With these analyses, we aimed to describe omega-6 and omega-3 FA intake among children and older adults in light of FA intake recommendations and with consideration of overall diet.
Methods:
Data were merge...
There is renewed interest in person-centered approaches to understanding the structure of temperament. However, questions concerning temperament types are not frequently framed in a developmental context, especially during infancy. In addition, the most common person-centered techniques, cluster analysis (CA) and latent profile analysis (LPA), have...
Blueberries are rich in antioxidants and may protect against disease. Uric acid accounts for about 50% of the antioxidant properties in humans. Elevated levels of serum uric acid (SUA) or hyperuricemia is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aim was to determine the effect of blueberries on SUA in older adults. Participants (n = 133,...
Background:
The ω-6 (n-6) to ω-3 (n-3) fatty acid (FA) ratio (n-6:n-3 ratio) was previously shown to be a predictor of executive function performance in children aged 7-9 y.
Objective:
We aimed to replicate and extend previous findings by exploring the role of the n-6:n-3 ratio in executive function performance. We hypothesized that there would...
Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) have been shown to be necessary for early retinal and brain development, but long-term cognitive benefits of LCPUFA in infancy have not been definitively established. The present study sought to determine whether LCPUFA supplementation during the first year of life would result in group differences in...
The Electric Maze Task (EMT) is a novel planning task designed to allow flexible testing of planning abilities across a broad age range and to incorporate manipulations to test underlying planning abilities, such as working memory and inhibitory control skills. The EMT was tested in a group of 63 typically-developing 7- to 12-year-olds. Participant...
Lower serum uric acid concentrations have been linked to cognitive dysfunction. Uric acid is an antioxidant that accounts for over half of the free radical scavenging activity in humans. Higher serum concentrations of uric acid have been associated with slower progression of several neurodegenerative diseases. On the other hand, elevated serum uric...
Objective
Choline supplementation of maternal diet during preconception and gestational periods has been shown to ameliorate fetal alcohol effects on offspring. Researchers generally provide alcohol and choline to pregnant dams via gavage, but this is not physiologically relevant. An alternative method of choline supplementation is to supplement sa...
Objective
Fetal Alcohol Exposure (FAE) causes a range of neurodevelopmentally abnormal phenotypes. Effects on hippocampus and frontal lobe, areas that preferentially accrete docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are seen consistently, possibly due to changes to the epigenome during gestation. DHA and choline play an integral role in neural development and su...
The aim was to explore the relation of human milk lutein; choline; and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) with recognition memory abilities of six-month-olds. Milk samples obtained three to four months postpartum were analyzed for fatty acids, lutein, and choline. At six months, participants were invited to an electrophysiology session. Recognition memory...
Polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolism in toddlers is regulated by a complex network of interacting factors. The contribution of maternal genetic and epigenetic makeup to this milieu is not well understood. In a cohort of mothers and toddlers 16 months of age (n = 65 mother-child pairs), we investigated the association between maternal genetic and e...
Maternal transfer of fatty acids is important to fetal brain development. The prenatal environment may differentially affect the substrates supporting declarative memory abilities, as the level of fatty acids transferred across the placenta may be affected by the maternal fatty acid desaturase 2 (FADS2) rs174575 single nucleotide polymorphism. In t...
In this monograph, the message is that early inactivity and obesity lead to later chronic disease, and, as such, physical inactivity should be recognized as a public health crisis. Sedentary behavior, to some extent, serves a purpose in our current culture (e.g., keeping children indoors keeps them safe), and, as such, may not be amenable to change...
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore the relation of human milk lutein, choline, and DHA with recognition memory abilities of 6‐month‐olds.
METHODS: Two hundred breastfeeding dyads were enrolled when the infants were 3‐4 months of age. Milk samples were obtained and analyzed for fatty acids, lutein, and choline. One hundred two of the 20...
Over the first decade of life there are marked improvements in mnemonic abilities. An important question from both a theoretical and applied perspective is the extent of continuity in the nature of memory over this period. The present longitudinal investigation examined declarative memory during the transition from toddlerhood to school-age using b...
Biochemical and behavioral evidence has suggested that the ratio of n-6 (omega-6) to n-3 (omega-3) could be an important predictor of executive function abilities in children.
We determined the relation between the ratio of n-6 to n-3 and cognitive function in children. We hypothesized that children with lower ratios of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids would...
The effect of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA) intake on cognitive development is controversial. Most randomized trials have assessed cognition at 18 mo, although significant development of cognitive abilities (early executive function) emerge later.
The objective was to evaluate cognition beyond 18 mo and longitudinal cognitive chang...
Our animal work indicates postnatal maternal alpha‐linolenic acid (LNA, 18:3 n‐3) supplementation alters FADS2 methylation (Niculescu et al., 2012) and increases neurogenesis in the pups’ dentate gyrus (Niculescu et al., 2011) contingent on gestational LNA levels. Based on these models, we posit that humans who convert more LNA into longer‐chain fa...
Background:
Choline is essential for fetal brain development, and it is not known whether a typical American diet contains enough choline to ensure optimal brain development.
Objective:
The study was undertaken to determine whether supplementing pregnant women with phosphatidylcholine (the main dietary source of choline) improves the cognitive a...
Objective
The cognitive advantage conferred by breastfeeding may be dependent on maternal FADS2 genotype. In a Canadian sample (Xie & Innis, 2008), fatty acid content of human milk related to genotype at rs174575 on the FADS2 gene. This study was undertaken to explore this in a sample from the USA.
Methods
Breastfeeding dyads were enrolled when in...
This study's objective was to investigate the importance of the omega‐6/omega‐3 fatty acid ratio to higher‐order cognitive functions in early school‐age children. Omega‐6(n‐6) and omega‐ 3(n‐3) fatty acids are found in abundance in the human brain, and n‐3 fatty acids have long been thought to be important for cognitive function. However, n‐6 fatty...
Objective
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is integral to neuronal function and subsequent cognition. Biosynthesis of DHA from its precursor alpha‐linolenic acid (LNA) is controlled by the FADS gene complex. Previously unobserved genetic differences may be a confound in studies of biosynthesis. This intervention was designed to determine the cognitive ef...
DL and MDN contributed equally to the scientific content of this abstract.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of maternal genotype and DNA methylation status of the fatty acid desaturase 2 (FADS2) upon plasma PUFAs concentrations in toddlers.108 toddlers (16 months old) and their mothers were enrolled in a double‐blind intervention...
Early accumulation of n-3 long-chain PUFA (LCPUFA) in the brain may contribute to differences in later cognitive abilities. In this study, our objective was to examine whether fish oil (FO) supplementation during lactation affects processing speed, working memory, inhibitory control, and socioemotional development at 7 years. Danish mothers (n = 12...
A double-blind, randomized, controlled, parallel-group prospective trial was conducted to determine whether a dose-response existed for four different levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation on the cognitive performance of infants. A total of 122 term infants were fed one of four different formulas varying in their DHA composition (0.0...
The ability to recall modeled actions can be enhanced by extra experience when risk factors are at a minimum; the greater the number of risk factors in an infant's history, the smaller the positive effect of the additional experience. It was also evident that experience did more to enhance the ability to recall modeled actions immediately relative...
Maltreatment involves a significant deviation from the average expected environment, and, as such, has consistently been shown to be detrimental to development. Children, who suffer abuse, neglect, or both are at increased risk for atypical emotion regulation, disorganized attachment, diminished cognitive development, and delayed language developme...
Omega-3 fatty acids are integral to the development of the brain. The mechanisms of action and results from research with animal models suggest a role for the omega-3 s, specifically doco-sahexaenoic acid (DHA), in the development of cognitive abilities. This review explores the actions of DHA in the brain and the animal models that have been devel...
The authors examined preschoolers' aggressive and cooperative behaviors and their associations with social dominance. First and as predicted, directly observed aggressive interactions decreased across the school year, and same-sex aggression occurred more frequently than cross-sex aggression. Next, the authors examined the relation between aggressi...
Several randomized clinical studies in infants born preterm and at term have explored the effects on visual acuity development of postnatal supplementation with various sources of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Higher visual acuity after DHA supplementation is a consistent finding in infants born preterm. For infants born at term, the results are less...
A heterogeneous sample of infants with preterm histories and infants born full term participated in a study of declarative memory and rate of encoding, as measured in an imitation task and an examining task, respectively. Here we report the comparisons of the performances of infants born very preterm (27–34 weeks gestation) and moderately preterm (...
Attention is a familiar and ubiquitous psychological construct that is widely alluded to in various scientific, clinical, and colloquial domains. Attention also remains as one of the least well-understood cognitive functions. The processes that represent the construct of attention are often said to share a common theme of “selection.” However, the...
Detection of novelty is an important cognitive ability early in development, when infants must learn a great deal about their world. Work with adults has identified networks of brain areas involved in novelty detection; this study investigated electrophysiological correlates of detection of novelty and recognition of familiarity in 9-month-old infa...
The question of whether early event memories are later accessible for verbal report is of major interest to those concerned with mnemonic processes. In a controlled laboratory study, we examined this question in children 16 and 20 months of age at the time of exposure to event sequences in the context of an elicited-imitation paradigm and who were...
Animal studies have shown that mother–infant interactions can have long-term impacts on areas of the brain that regulate fearful behavior and the physiology of stress. Here, the research on human infants and children is reviewed with an eye to whether early experiences have similar effects in our species. Research shows that during the first year,...
How dominance in the competitive MovieViewer (MV) task relates to peer preference and assertive behavior, and whether these relations differ for boys and girls were explored. Ninety-one preschool children in same-sex quartets were videotaped inter-acting in the MV task and dominance ranks were assigned according to viewing time. Peer preference was...
Appendix: leaves 41-49. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Minnesota, 2004. Major: Child psychology. Minor: Neuroscience. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 32-40).