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Accepted manuscript

Infant’s thermal balance and the evolution of the human breast – a proof-of-concept study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2025

Tiina Kuvaja
Affiliation:
Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, Finland
Tiina Väre
Affiliation:
Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, Finland Laboratory of Chronology, Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Finland
Sirkka Rissanen
Affiliation:
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Oulu, Finland
Hannu Rintamäki
Affiliation:
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Oulu, Finland
Petri Lehenkari
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, Medical Research Center Oulu, Oulu University Hospital and University of Oulu, Finland
Juho-Antti Junno*
Affiliation:
Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, Finland Department of Anatomy, Medical Research Center Oulu, Oulu University Hospital and University of Oulu, Finland
*
Corresponding author: Juho-Antti Junno, Email: juho-antti.junno@oulu.fi

Abstract

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The distinct size and shape of breasts in women is a uniquely human trait. This trait has no conclusive explanation as it is not a requirement for milk production. Additionally, breasts are enlarged already at puberty, this is usually long before the first pregnancy. We hypothesized that the perennially enlarged human breasts were potentially developed to support infant’s thermal balance by providing increased warming surface in skin-to-skin contact. To test the hypothesis, we measured breast surface temperature to explore their heating capacity and resilience to temperature changes in an environmental conditions laboratory. Volunteers, divided in groups of nursing women, non-nursing women and men, were exposed to three temperatures: 32°C, 27°C and 18°C. The exposure time in each temperature was 20 min. The changes in breast surface temperature were recorded by thermal imaging camera. Data was analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis tests. Breastfeeding women had overall higher mammary surface temperature compared to other groups. Furthermore, nursing women had distinct resilience against cooling environment: they lost the average of 2.5°C of their mammary surface temperature, whereas other study groups lost 4.3 and 4.7°C of surface temperature respectively. This proof-of -concept study clearly indicated the potential of the nursing women’s breasts to support infant’s thermal balance.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re- use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press.