Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 21, 2026

A Common Marmoset Model of Mother-Infant Intervention for Breastfeeding Disorders in the Presence of Paternal Inhibition and Maternal Neglect
05:04

A Common Marmoset Model of Mother-Infant Intervention for Breastfeeding Disorders in the Presence of Paternal Inhibition and Maternal Neglect

Published on: September 22, 2023

The Association Between Breastfeeding Duration and Attentional and Cognitive Development in Infancy and Early

Feline A van Gelderen1,2, Roy S Hessels2, Kelly A Mulder1

  • 1Danone Research & Innovation, Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Infancy : the Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies
|August 20, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Breastfeeding duration positively impacts later receptive vocabulary, but not early infant attentional development. Eye-tracking in well-nourished infants did not detect subtle nutritional effects on attention.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Pediatric Nutrition

Background:

  • Breastfeeding duration is linked to cognitive outcomes, but early assessments may miss subtle differences.
  • Eye-tracking offers a sensitive method to evaluate infant attentional development.
  • Understanding the impact of infant feeding on early cognition is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if infant eye-tracking can detect attentional differences related to breastfeeding duration.
  • To examine the association between breastfeeding duration and infant attentional disengagement.
  • To correlate early attentional development with later cognitive outcomes (receptive vocabulary).

Main Methods:

  • Utilized data from the YOUth Baby & Child cohort (N=2647) in the Netherlands.
  • Assessed infant attentional disengagement using eye-tracking at 5 and 10 months.
  • Measured child receptive vocabulary at 3 and 6 years of age.

Main Results:

  • A positive association was found between breastfeeding duration and receptive vocabulary at 6 years.
  • No significant association was observed between breastfeeding duration and infant attentional disengagement at either 5 or 10 months.
  • Early attentional development, as measured by eye-tracking, did not mediate the link between breastfeeding and later vocabulary.

Conclusions:

  • The cognitive benefits of breastfeeding duration in well-nourished infants may not extend to early attentional development.
  • Subtle effects of early nutrition on attention might be too small to be detected by current eye-tracking methods in this population.
  • Future research should consider populations with wider developmental variability to explore nutritional impacts on attention.

Keywords:
attentional disengagementbreastfeedingearly‐life nutritiongap‐overlap paradigminfancy

More Related Videos

A Within-subjects Experimental Protocol to Assess the Effects of Social Input on Infant EEG08:20

A Within-subjects Experimental Protocol to Assess the Effects of Social Input on Infant EEG

Published on: May 3, 2017

Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale19:15

Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale

Published on: August 25, 2014

Related Concept Videos

Relationship with Parents: Attachment01:28

Relationship with Parents: Attachment

Parent-child interactions lay the foundation for how we understand relationships throughout life. These interactions are not uniform across families; instead, they are shaped by a range of environmental, emotional, and behavioral factors unique to each caregiver-child dynamic. Social psychologists study these early relationships to understand how patterns formed in infancy influence social functioning and interpersonal behavior in adulthood.Attachment Theory and Early Relational ModelsJohn...
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development

The sensorimotor stage, the initial phase of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, spans the first two years of a child's life. During this period, infants actively engage with their surroundings, building cognitive awareness through direct interaction with the world. This interaction is primarily based on sensory perception and motor actions, allowing infants to gradually understand basic physical properties and predict how objects interact within their environment.
Exploration...
Socioemotional Development during Infancy01:30

Socioemotional Development during Infancy

Socio-emotional development in infancy is primarily shaped by early emotional responses and social connections, with temperament playing a central role. Temperament refers to the consistent patterns in an individual's emotional and behavioral responses, observable even in infancy. By examining temperament, researchers can better understand an infant's unique ways of interacting with the world, influencing subsequent personality and socio-emotional growth.
Primary Temperament Types
Stella Chess...
Information Processing Approach01:30

Information Processing Approach

The information-processing theory of cognitive development centers on fundamental mental processes, including attention, memory, and problem-solving skills. Researchers in this field examine how cognitive abilities, such as working memory, evolve and influence children's overall development. Studies indicate that children with stronger working memory tend to excel in reading comprehension, math, and problem-solving compared to peers with less efficient memory skills. Low working memory is also...
Attachment01:20

Attachment

Attachment is vital for infant development, as warm social interactions support growth and well-being. In a classic 1958 study by Harry Harlow, the significance of warmth and comfort in forming attachments was examined. Harlow separated newborn monkeys from their mothers and provided two artificial "mothers": one made of cold wire and the other covered in soft cloth. Despite the wire mother offering food, the infant monkeys preferred the comfort of the cloth mother, demonstrating that physical...
The Nativist Approach01:21

The Nativist Approach

The nativist approach to infant cognitive development proposes that infants are born with inherent knowledge structures that allow them to interpret the world almost immediately. This perspective contrasts with earlier developmental theories, such as those proposed by Jean Piaget, which emphasized a more gradual acquisition of cognitive abilities through interaction with the environment. One key concept in this approach is object permanence — the understanding that objects continue to exist...