Breastfeeding Ties to Better Emotion Perception in Some Infants

21st September, 2015

25 September 2015, Autism, News of the Week, Newsletter

[Source: Medical X Press]
infantperception

Researchers found that among 44 babies with a particular autism “risk” gene, those who were breast-fed longer spent more time looking at images of “happy” eyes and shied away from “angry” eyes.

The findings, published online Sept. 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that breast-feeding might enhance social development in certain at-risk infants.

However, the authors and other experts stressed that the study offers no evidence that breast-feeding ultimately affects a child’s odds of developing autism, or that it lessens the severity of autism symptoms.
Long-term studies are “absolutely required” to answer those questions, said lead researcher Kathleen Krol, of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, in Leipzig, Germany.
“It could be just as likely that the emotional biases we found in 7-month-old infants will diminish later in life and have little impact on the future behavior of the child,” Krol said.
Read the Rest of this Article on Medical X Press

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