A hotter home appears to produce babies with better cognitive abilities. But before you turn up the home heater to make your baby brainier, take note that the research was conducted by Sydney researchers on the Australian lizard Bassiana duperreyi.
Many other traits in young reptiles are determined by the temperature of the nest, so researchers looked at how incubation temperature would affect the learning performance of these lizards. Their study found that lizard eggs incubated at higher temperatures resulted in baby lizards with enhanced learning performance.
Joshua Amiel, Prof Rick Shine, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney
Biology Letters; http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=8471