Effects of starvation in infancy (pyloric stenosis) on subsequent learning abilities

Abstract

The model of starvation in this study was the medical condition of congenital hypertrophic pyloric stenosis. Pyloric stenosis involves a period of brief starvation in early infancy, is unrelated to socioeconomic conditions, and is easily correctable. A number of specific learning abilities together with the general adjustment of 50 subjects, 5 to 14 years old, who had PS were studied and compared to those of 44 siblings and 50 matched controls. Learning ability was negatively correlated with the degree of severity of the starvation. Starvation resulting in reduction of more than 10% of the expected body weight in infancy was associated with poorer learning abilities, especially those involving short-term memory and attention.