The brains of children from violent homes function like those of soldiers when it comes to detecting threats.
at University College London used fMRI to scan the brains of 20 outwardly healthy children who had been maltreated and 23 鈥渃ontrols鈥� from safe environments.
During the scans, the children, aged 12 on average, viewed a mixture of sad, neutral and angry faces. When they saw angry faces, the maltreated children showed extra activity in the amygdala and the anterior insula, known to be involved in threat detection and anticipation of pain. Combat soldiers show similar heightened activity (, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.015).
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鈥淥ur belief is that these changes could reflect neural adaption,鈥� says McCrory. 鈥淢altreated kids and active soldiers are adapting to survive in a threatening or dangerous environment.鈥� Although this could help children survive their early years, it may predispose them to mental health problems in adulthood, such as depression or anxiety, says McCrory.
A related study, published this week by of Yale University School of Medicine and colleagues, demonstrates that areas of the brain important for emotional processing are deficient in grey matter in adolescents who suffered from maltreatment as children (Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, DOI: 10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.565).
鈥淭he studies suggest that childhood maltreatment 鈥榞ets into the brain鈥�, and becomes biologically embedded,鈥� says , who studies mental health at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
