| Abstrakt: |
Objective: It is known that breastfeeding has an important in children's neurological development. There are many studies in the literature on the neurological development of breastfed and non-breastfed children, and the volumes of their cortical and subcortical regions. Studies have shown that breastfed children have an increase in white and gray matter volume, cortical thickness, and the volume of white matter related structures. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of breast milk on cortical and subcortical structures. Methods: The study included 14 (8 girls, 6 boys) breastfed children and 18 (8 girls, 10 boys) not breastfed children. The volumes of the brain cortical and subcortical structures were examined with the volBrain 1.0 method using T1 -weighted magnetic resonance images of the study participants. SPSS 22.0 program was used for the statistical analysis of our study and a p value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results: In the analysis results of our study, total thalamus, left thalamus and right hippocampus volumes were found to be smaller in those who received breast milk than those who did not. These values are statistically significant. Volumetric increase was observed in other subcortical structures of non-breastfed subjects compared to breastfed. However, this increase is not statistically significant. Conclusion: Breast milk is a complex nutritional substrate with theoretical nutritional advantages over formula milk to support brain development. In the literature, different results were obtained when the brain structures of breastfed children were examined. It is thought that the presence of volumetric increase or decrease cannot be determined as a criterion for choosing breast milk. These differences are thought to be due to reasons such as the number of participants, method differences, and breastfeeding duration. We believe that our study will contribute to the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
