title: Impact of Fetal-Neonatal Iron Deficiency on Recognition Memory at 2 Months of Age.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the effects of fetal-neonatal iron deficiency on recognition memory in early infancy. Perinatal iron deficiency delays or disrupts hippocampal development in animal models and thus may impair related neural functions in human infants, such as recognition memory.
  
  
  METHODS
  Event-related potentials were used in an auditory recognition memory task to compare 2-month-old Chinese infants with iron sufficiency or deficiency at birth. Fetal-neonatal iron deficiency was defined 2 ways: high zinc protoporphyrin/heme ratio (ZPP/H > 118 μmol/mol) or low serum ferritin (<75 μg/L) in cord blood. Late slow wave was used to measure infant recognition of mother's voice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Event related potentials patterns differed significantly for fetal-neonatal iron deficiency as defined by high cord ZPP/H but not low ferritin. Comparing 35 infants with iron deficiency (ZPP/H > 118 μmol/mol) to 92 with lower ZPP/H (iron-sufficient), only infants with iron sufficiency showed larger late slow wave amplitude for stranger's voice than mother's voice in frontal-central and parietal-occipital locations, indicating the recognition of mother's voice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Infants with iron sufficiency showed electrophysiological evidence of recognizing their mother's voice, whereas infants with fetal-neonatal iron deficiency did not. Their poorer auditory recognition memory at 2 months of age is consistent with effects of fetal-neonatal iron deficiency on the developing hippocampus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD.
authors.forename: Fengji
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Geng
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoqin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Mai
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Health Care, Children's Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jianying
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Health Care, Children's Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Health Care, Children's Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zhengyan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Georgieff
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Health Care, Children's Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China. Electronic address: shaojie@zju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: Betsy
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lozoff
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005293:Ferritins / Q000097:blood; D005333:Fetus; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007501:Iron / Q000097:blood; D000090463:Iron Deficiencies; D019189:Iron Metabolism Disorders / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011524:Protoporphyrins / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D011524:Protoporphyrins; C017803:zinc protoporphyrin; D005293:Ferritins; D007501:Iron