Skip to content
Surprising Science

Winter Babies at Higher Risk

People born in winter months are at greater risk of neurological disorders, including schizophrenia. We’re now starting to understand the reasons behind this phenomenon.
Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

The idea that people and animals will act in certain ways based on what time of the year they were born is known as seasonal imprinting. This phenomeon has previously been directly observed in non-mammals, and there’s lots of indirect evidence to support it in mammals, such as the increase in neurological disorders suffered by people born in winter months. But new research by scientists at Vanderbilt has provided the first direct observation of seasonal imprinting in mammals, and it provides the first clear biological explanation for what’s going on in humans.

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Related
“The truth is that the skills that go into both motivation and manipulation are almost the same skills. The same level of persuasion, the same level of influence, the same level of charisma and dynamic creative thinking drives us to both be manipulated and be motivated.”
13 min
with

Up Next