No one is as innovative as prospective parents with the due date of their firstborn baby firmly in sight. From the moment they discover they are pregnant, everything is at issue. The details of what the expectant mom should eat and not eat, of what situations she should avoid or seek out, even what thoughts she should hold in her mind or deliberately shed. These notions are as myriad as they are … how might I say this? Let’s try … over the top.

Oh yes, from that old standby – playing classical music for baby-to-be, to Dad speaking into Mom’s abdomen so the new little one will know his voice, to one mother I met who confessed that she did times tables out loud while she commuted, figuring to get it out of the way early and give Junior a full step ahead of the competition.

To be clear, she told me about this technique when it was a safe bet that my offspring-producing days were likely in the rear-view mirror, and I had little use for adopting her methods.

It was all I could do to politely respond with “What a great idea!” when what I really wanted to say was “What aren’t you telling me?”

Part of the problem is that when you are pregnant, there’s so little you can actually do, especially with the first one. Unless you’re very ill, you simply go about your business. So, what to stop us from trying to make more of our offspring than nature is already delivering. The efforts of the times table mother are classic, trying to make this kid’s brain even better than the product of already highly-motivated genes.

Of course, once the baby is born, parents are hugely busy, and by the time the second pregnancy presents itself, few have the time or energy to think up wildly original “in utero” schemes. But that doesn’t mean that parents aren’t on the job, doing everything they can to nurture both the bodies and the brains of their offspring.

You’ve got to believe there are children out there right now, pleading, “Hey, Mom! Stop with times tables already!” But the truly motivated never quit, and now science has just stepped in and added a whole new dimension.

Since 1989, in a project initiated by Dr. Judith Rapoport at the National Institutes for Mental Health, the brains of highly intelligent children were regularly scanned. It turns out that over time, as they grow, the smart brains are measurably different from the average ones.

It’s not a matter of having “more.” Smart brains simply develop differently in the brainy, and in a rather complicated way. At an early age – say 7 or 8 years old – they have different “differential” characteristics than at 12 or 13. When compared with the average group, what’s smaller or “thinner” at one point in the growth cycle becomes larger or “thicker” at another.

In science, as in anything, it always nice if the answer to the question is “42,” but the brain is extremely complex. The effect of genes, environment, diet and the dynamic of the brain itself is not all that well understood.

But know this. There are parents out there right now paying close attention. Brain imaging techniques will be getting better and better, and the science will get better as well. Those very same parents, with their own special and no doubt secret “in utero” techniques for influencing their first little bun in the oven, may be gearing up to start scanning their own children’s brains.

So, I say, let the times tables flow … but let’s also do some hard thinking about the rights of children.

I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.