Breastfeeding may give babies a language boost by influencing brain growth
Breastfeeding may “rewire” babies’ brains in ways that help them acquire language, suggests a new study from the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. Using MRI, the researchers scanned the brains of 4-to-8-year-old children and surveyed their parents about their breastfeeding history. They found that the longer a baby was breastfed, the more white matter he or she developed in language-associated parts of the brain.