Children of mothers who took certain antiseizure medications while pregnant do not have worse neurodevelopmental outcomes at age 6, according to a long-running study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study was published in JAMA Neurology.

The study in Nature Human Behavior revealed that genetic variants associated with higher likelihood of rhythm impairments tended to be also associated with higher likelihood of dyslexia. The reverse was also the case: Genetic variants associated with more accurate musical rhythm skills co-occurred with genes linked to higher performance on language and reading tests, and to language-related educational outcomes