MRI scans revealed that premature babies who received breast milk had improved markers of brain development and connectivity, compared with those who received formula milk, according to an article published online September 18 in NeuroImage.
Prior research has found that preterm birth was strongly associated with altered structural connectivity of the developing neural network on the MRI scans of babies' brains, noted senior author James Boardman, PhD, and colleagues from the University of Edinburgh in the U.K.
Believing that breast milk could help counteract this effect, the researchers examined the MRI scans of 47 premature infants who received either breast milk or formula milk during the time they spent at the hospital's intensive care unit. The babies who had breast milk more than 75% of the time displayed greater brain connectivity on their MRI scans than those who had breast milk less than 75% of the time (p < 0.05). Higher connectivity throughout the brain was most evident in babies who were fed breast milk for a larger proportion of their stay.
Brain maps based on data from MRI scans show that babies who received more breast milk (left) had fewer gaps in neural connectivity (colored lines) than babies who received less (right). Image courtesy of the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory at the University of Edinburgh."Mothers of preterm babies should be supported to provide breast milk while their baby is in neonatal care -- if they are able to and if their baby is well enough to receive milk -- because this may give their children the best chance of healthy brain development," Boardman said in a statement from the university.
