Summary: Breastfeeding supports bonding and reduces some negative outcomes associated with postnatal depression. In this study, breastfeeding also appeared to protect infants’ brain development and temperament when mothers experienced maternal depression.
Source: Florida Atlantic University
About one in nine new mothers experiences maternal depression, which can weaken the mother–infant bond and influence early infant development. Physical touch is central to an infant’s socio-emotional growth. Mothers who are depressed are less likely to offer soothing touch, can struggle to recognize and respond to their infant’s facial cues, and often have more difficulty regulating their own emotions. These caregiving differences are reflected in infants: babies of depressed mothers frequently show brain activity patterns that mirror their mothers’ mood-related patterns and are at greater risk for dysregulated social interactions and temperamental challenges.
Researchers at Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science conducted a first-of-its-kind study investigating how feeding method (breastfeeding versus bottle-feeding) and affectionate touch interact with maternal depression to influence infant neurodevelopment and temperament. The study focused on affectionate touch during feeding — including stroking, massaging, and caressing initiated by either mother or infant — and measured infants’ electroencephalogram (EEG) activity at 1 and 3 months of age.
The research evaluated 113 mother–infant dyads. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms, feeding practices, and infant temperament. Researchers videotaped feeding interactions to code affectionate touch and recorded infants’ tonic frontal EEG patterns to assess hemispheric asymmetry and left/right frontal activity. The main goal was to determine whether maternal depression and feeding method jointly predicted changes in resting frontal EEG asymmetry and power during early infancy, and whether those neurophysiological patterns corresponded with observable affectionate touch behaviors.
Findings, published in the journal Neuropsychobiology, showed clear links among maternal mood, feeding method, affectionate touch, and infant EEG patterns. Overall, breastfeeding was associated with greater maternal and infant affectionate touch across the first three months, while bottle-feeding in the context of maternal depression corresponded with reduced infant-initiated touch directed at the mother.
EEG results revealed that infants of depressed mothers who were predominantly bottle-fed exhibited right frontal EEG asymmetry and showed less development-related change in left frontal activation between 1 and 3 months. Right frontal asymmetry has been associated with greater negative affect and withdrawal tendencies. By contrast, infants with sustained breastfeeding experience — including those whose mothers had depressive symptoms — demonstrated shifts toward greater left frontal activation. Left frontal activity is commonly linked with positive emotion, advancing cortical maturation, and approach-related behaviors.
Importantly, infants of depressed mothers who were breastfed did not show the same behavioral or neurophysiological dysregulation previously observed in infants of depressed mothers who did not breastfeed. This suggests that consistent breastfeeding correlates with more adaptive affectionate touch patterns and more favorable EEG profiles during early development.
The researchers also found that the duration of breastfeeding and infants’ positive temperament traits predicted higher levels of infant-initiated affectionate touch. These findings point to a dynamic interaction between early caregiving experiences, infant temperament, and neurophysiological regulation during feeding — a context that shapes both behavior and brain development during a critical period.
“We examined affectionate touch during feeding because tactile interaction is one of the earliest and most consistent channels of mutual regulation for mothers and infants,” said Nancy Aaron Jones, Ph.D., lead author and director of the FAU WAVES Emotion Laboratory. “Because feeding is frequent across the first three postpartum months, it provides a key context to study how maternal mood and caregiving practices jointly influence infant socio-emotional and neural development.”
The study’s co-authors include Jillian S. Hardin, Krystal D. Mize, Ph.D., and Melannie Platt. Funding for the research was provided by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health (#MH61888) awarded to Aaron Jones.
Abstract
Affectionate Touch in the Context of Breastfeeding and Maternal Depression Influences Infant Neurodevelopmental and Temperamental Substrates
Background: While prior research has documented links between maternal depression and altered infant brain development, fewer studies have examined how co-occurring caregiving experiences — in particular, breastfeeding and affectionate touch — may shape infant temperament and cortical maturation. This study explored how maternal depressive symptoms and feeding method interact to affect mother and infant affectionate touch, infant temperament, and frontal EEG asymmetry during early development.
Methods: One hundred thirteen mothers and their infants were assessed at 1 and 3 months postpartum. Mothers reported depressive symptoms, feeding practices, and infant temperament. Infant tonic EEG (frontal asymmetry and left/right activity) was recorded, and feeding sessions were videotaped to code affectionate touch initiated by mother and infant.
Results: EEG activity and affectionate touch patterns varied by maternal mood and feeding method. Infants of depressed, bottle-feeding mothers showed right frontal EEG asymmetry and reduced developmental increases in left frontal activity across the first three months. In contrast, stable breastfeeding predicted increases in left frontal activation and greater maternal and infant affectionate touch, even within depressed groups. A predictive model combining physiology, maternal depression, touch, temperament, and feeding indicated that breastfeeding and positive infant temperament were strong predictors of infant affectionate touch.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that breastfeeding and infants’ positive temperament traits shape mother–infant affectionate touch and are associated with neuroprotective outcomes during early development, including for infants exposed to maternal depression.