Randomized, double-blind, controlled-feeding trial: pregnant women in their third trimester were fed diets providing either 480 mg/day (near the AI) or 930 mg/day (~2x AI) choline until delivery. Their infants (n=26 dyads with usable data) were tested on an information-processing-speed (reaction time) task at 4, 7, 10 and 13 months. Infants of mothers in the 930-mg group had significantly faster reaction times averaged across ages than the 480-mg group; within the 480-mg group, longer in-utero exposure to the higher-choline diet (via later randomization) predicted faster reaction times, suggesting a dose- and duration-dependent effect of maternal choline intake on offspring cognitive processing speed.
relevance_note: Direct RCT evidence that maternal choline intake — for which egg yolk is one of the densest common dietary sources — causally affects infant neurodevelopment, the clearest “beneficial essential nutrient” primary for the pregnancy/infant population.