Childhood Maltreatment Can Leave Scars In The Brain : Shots - Health News : NPR

Childhood Maltreatment Can Leave Scars In The Brain : Shots - Health News : NPR



Blog III

 

CHILDHOOD MALTREATMENT CAN LEAVE SCARS IN THE BRAIN

What do we mean by maltreatment and what are the behavior problems?

 

  We as human beings are built to instinctually respond to fear situations by rapid changes in the body and brain that in more primitive times might have meant death or survival.  In the more civilized environment that we live in now, there are some situations that might require this response. For example, as a driver of a vehicle this primitive response might allow you to have temporarily more strength in your arms and legs to wrestle with the steering wheel and more forcefully apply the brakes. Your brain will suspend all cognitive functions except those associated with the emergency at hand.  Instinct and emotions dominate over cognitive abilities.  Maltreatment for this discussion includes physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect.  For children and adolescents who have been subject to maltreatment, the response to situations that would cause a response such as the one described above happen  routinely. Their reaction to everyday stressors generates a fear and a fear response that is inappropriate.

 

What is the mechanism that causes this? 

 

 Psychiatrists, through brain diagnostics, have been able to determine that in these adolescents the connection between the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the hippocampus and the PFC and the amygdala are weak.  The hippocampus’ function is to assess a situation and tell the PFC how serious (level of fear to be generated) it is.  The PFC then controls the appropriate emotional response from the amygdala.  With weak connections among the three, the amygdala (not tempered by the PFC) generates emotional responses that may be over amplified for the situation.  The result is that these adolescents who have been subject to abuse generate fear at the slightest provocation.
 

What can we do about this?

 

  In the same that diagnostics are used to assess physical abnormalities, diagnostics should similarly be used to identify these abnormal brain developments.  Then subsequent treatment can be prescribed in the same way treatment for physical ailments are prescribed.  This might avoid subsequent tragedies.