Letter: Mother knows best

Sir: It was with a sense of reassurance that I read your article "Motherhood is good for the brain" (11 November). Research suggests that mothers are cleverer than virgins, based on experiments carried out on rats. However, I cannot see how researchers will manage to confirm these results about women, since pregnant women and new mothers are so tired that the whole point of getting more clever at solving problems gets lost because of exhaustion. In fact, reading your newspaper is one of the only pleasures I have time for.

CHELIN MILLER

Hamburg,

Germany