Scientists are genuinely divided on this question.

What's still open

What the evidence found 3 findings
Based on 10 sources:
JAMA peer-reviewed View
PLOS Medicine peer-reviewed View
Circulation peer-reviewed View
International Journal of Epidemiology peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
Semantic Scholar institutional View
PMC article by Poulton et al. 2015 peer-reviewed View
ScienceAlert news View
PMC article by Victora et al. 2015 peer-reviewed View
PLOS ONE peer-reviewed View
Based on 14 sources:
PMC - NIH peer-reviewed View
PubMed - NIH peer-reviewed View
Nature peer-reviewed View
PMC Article 7016985 peer-reviewed View
Science Direct peer-reviewed View
PMC Article 4474038 peer-reviewed View
Human Brain Mapping peer-reviewed View
PMC/NeuroImage peer-reviewed View
Ageing Research Reviews peer-reviewed View
PubMed peer-reviewed View
ResearchGate peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
ResearchGate peer-reviewed View
Based on 15 sources:
PMC article on breastfeeding and cognitive development peer-reviewed View
EurekAlert research news news View
ResearchGate publication on breastfeeding and cognitive performance peer-reviewed View
PubMed systematic review and meta-analysis peer-reviewed View
PMC research article peer-reviewed View
ResearchGate systematic review with network meta-analysis peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
Science Daily news View
PMC - NIH peer-reviewed View
PubMed - NIH peer-reviewed View
Nature peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
ResearchGate peer-reviewed View
What research hasn't answered 3 gaps
JAMA peer-reviewed View
PLOS Medicine peer-reviewed View
Circulation peer-reviewed View
International Journal of Epidemiology peer-reviewed View
PMC peer-reviewed View
Sources 22 findings
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argumentation Unknown
argumentation Unknown
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argumentation Unknown
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Generated by reaso.ai's editorial pipeline: claim restated, scientific consensus classified via 3-run majority vote, 22 findings enriched with attribution and study type, narrative written in neutral voice. No individual researcher has signed off on this specific analysis — see methodology for how the pipeline works. Built with Claude Sonnet by Anthropic. Updated April 16, 2026. How we do this →

Written by AI. Sources are linked for verification.