Mothers who breast-feed their babies experience a different brain response when their babies cry than moms who do not breast-feed, according to a new study in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
In the study, which had a small sample size, researchers found that mothers who breast-fed their infants had a greater response in the regions of the brain related to empathy and caregiving, such as the amygdala, putamen, globus pallidus and superior frontal gyrus, than mothers who exclusively used formula.
The study used MRI scanning to track brain response in the mothers as they heard their babies crying at age 1 month.
