Association between duration of breastfeeding based on maternal reports and dorsal and ventral striatum and medial orbital gyrus volumes in early adolescence

Summary

Maternal breastfeeding has an impact on motor and emotional development in children of the next generation. Elucidating how breastfeeding during infancy affects brain regional structural development in early adolescence will be helpful for promoting healthy development. However, the effect of breastfeeding during infancy on subsequent brain development is largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the association between breastfeeding duration and brain regional volume in a population-neuroimaging study of early adolescents in Japan (N = 207; 11–13 years). We evaluated breastfeeding duration as indexed by maternal and child health handbook records during infancy. The results showed a significant positive correlation between the duration of breastfeeding and gray matter volume in the dorsal and ventral striatum and the medial orbital gyrus. Post hoc exploratory analyses revealed that the duration of breastfeeding was significantly correlated with emotional behavior. Additionally, the volume in the medial orbital gyrus mediated an association between breastfeeding duration and emotional behavior. Our findings shed light upon the importance of maternal breastfeeding for brain development related to emotional and motivational processing in early adolescence. 

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