Breastfeeding Duration Is Associated with Regional, but Not Global, Differences in White Matter Tracts

Extended breastfeeding through infancy confers benefits on neurocognitive performance and intelligence tests, though few have examined the biological basis of these effects. To investigate correlations with breastfeeding, we examined the major white matter tracts in 4-8 year-old children using diffu...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brain sciences 2019-12, Vol.10 (1), p.19
Main Authors: Bauer, Christopher E, Lewis, James W, Brefczynski-Lewis, Julie, Frum, Chris, Schade, Margeaux M, Haut, Marc W, Montgomery-Downs, Hawley E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anisotropy
Breast feeding
breastfeeding
Breastfeeding & lactation
Cerebral hemispheres
Children & youth
cingulum angular bundle
Cognition
Corpus callosum
diffusion tensor imaging
Executive function
fractional anisotropy
Hypotheses
infant feeding methods
Intelligence
Magnetic resonance imaging
Medical imaging
Neural networks
pediatrics
Simulation
Sleep disorders
Substantia alba
superior longitudinal fasciculus
white matter
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Extended breastfeeding through infancy confers benefits on neurocognitive performance and intelligence tests, though few have examined the biological basis of these effects. To investigate correlations with breastfeeding, we examined the major white matter tracts in 4-8 year-old children using diffusion tensor imaging and volumetric measurements of the corpus callosum. We found a significant correlation between the duration of infant breastfeeding and fractional anisotropy scores in left-lateralized white matter tracts, including the left superior longitudinal fasciculus and left angular bundle, which is indicative of greater intrahemispheric connectivity. However, in contrast to expectations from earlier studies, no correlations were observed with corpus callosum size, and thus no correlations were observed when using such measures of global interhemispheric white matter connectivity development. These findings suggest a complex but significant positive association between breastfeeding duration and white matter connectivity, including in pathways known to be functionally relevant for reading and language development.
ISSN:2076-3425
2076-3425
DOI:10.3390/brainsci10010019