How Abuse Changes a Child’s Brain

[n2doc]

By Brandon Keim


The brains of children raised in violent families resemble the brains of soldiers exposed to combat, psychologists say.

They’re primed to perceive threat and anticipate pain, adaptations that may be helpful in abusive environments but produce long-term problems with stress and anxiety.

“For them to detect early cues that might signal danger is adaptive. It allows them to react, to try and avoid the danger,” said psychologist Eamon McCrory of University College London. However, “a very similar neural signature characterizes quite a few anxiety disorders.”


In a study published Dec. 5 in Current Biology, McCrory’s team used functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to measure blood flows in the brains of 43 children exposed to violence at home as they looked at pictures of sad or angry faces.

Previous studies have shown that abuse affects kids’ brains; as they grow up, abused children become adults with high levels of aggression, anxiety, depression and other behavioral problems. But according to McCrory, the new study is the first to use fMRI to study the form of those changes.

more

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/neurology-of-abuse/

[saras]

1. We gotta stop those scientists before they prove that right-wing really IS brain-damaged.

Reality's liberal bias strikes again.

[Odin2005]

2. That's not suprising, PTSD is PTSD.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

3. yep

I have PTSD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, various physical leftovers and spent too many years just trying to join the human race!

Well, let's get off that subject now, eh? ;) Gotta run anyway.....

(Hi Odin!!!!! :hug: )

[Odin2005]

4. Hi!

:hi:

[BlancheSplanchnik]

5. :)

:hi:

[canetoad]

6. To cheer you up, Blanchie

:hi:

[BlancheSplanchnik]

7. CANETOAD!! How are ya??

:hug: :hug:

Hahahahahha, thanks for the toons! Actually, I'm feeling pretty good; I'm not plowed under by that garbage anymore.....after all the recovery work I've done, it's mostly just "well, it was what it was", and I don't live in it anymore....... It's just that the article is pretty interesting.


I LOVE Farside!!!!!! Here's one of my many FAVES:


they're BUTTS!!!!!!! HAHAHHAHAHAH :rofl:

[canetoad]

8. Hahaha that's funny

I still look at old Far Side cartoons and laugh till the tears run down my legs!

Glad you're going well, all is fine here, 'cept I have a tooth abscess. Got antibiotics and see the dentist Monday, so no real dramas.

Take care :)

[BrendaBrick]

9. Thanks for posting this.

Though it is not a silver bullet by any means, I feel it is an excellent avenue worth exploring and its findings need to be more readily available to the general public. Bring on MORE research and let's make it a priority to (eventually) become a Public Service Announcement across the board!

Though, it is a challenge, I would imagine. To compile enough fMRI evidence.

That's the thing with abuse which is not physically evident. A whole slew of scars and internal black and blue marks in our heads and hearts which is not physically obvious,and does not necessarily go away nor just automatically heal itself without some sort of positve, supportive outside intervention in most instances.

Some poets, I think do a well-needed service to try and shed some light on this in their own eloquent way. Beyond that (and in addition to) is a need for physical evidence on what abuse ACTUALLY DOES to the brain. To the wiring. How it 'short-circuits' what would otherwise be 'normal' perceptions. How it sometimes just gets so over-loaded that it either shuts down completely or compartmentalizes running on some sort of traumatic default mode, for perhaps a lifetime of misery and torment from cradle to grave.

That like....you have heard of the long arm of the law....how about the long arm of abuse which has such a strong impact and can coast over many decades - most folks don't envision that...but that is exactly what can and DOES happen.

Though I feel a bit bashful in quoting Dr. Phil...he does have one quote that I think nails it: "It takes 10 atta-boy's to erase one negative comment."

By and large, I really don't think, in my heart of hearts that many parents know any better. Some do, most don't. Most just really DON'T know any better (or opt out of getting some adequate, professional help) so they recreate that which is familiar - even though THAT may be really screwed up! A sad generational type of thing which sadly perpetuates itself.

If we can only educate this segment of the public and the current generations and the ones that will follow after that - that if you do or say this to your child in a repetitive manner that THIS (visual) actual BRAIN DAMAGE will begin to take form. This is WHAT THIS ACTION EVENTUALLY CAUSES. So, in order to AVOID THAT - here are some tips. Some education for you.

Here is where prevention tactics and strategies enter in.

The way I see it, I'd like to see this type of research expound in such a way so that its findings are eventually considered in the general public to just be simply, matter-of-fact - and therefore (mostly) avoided because its scientific pictures as to the effects are so obvious and clearly irrefutable.

Knowledge.

I'm reminded of a bumper sticker: You think education is expensive...try ignorance!

[defendandprotect]

10. Very important subject --- !!!

Just as an aside, Thom Hartmann was talking about recent tests which measured

impact on youth of violent game videos -- immediate and long term effects.


Violence isn't good for anyone or anything!!