Imaging Study Examines Early Adversity Effects On Adolescent Brains

Adverse experiences in the early six years of life can take you to higher levels of "childhood internalizing symptoms" and differences in brain growth during adolescence, according to psychcentral.

The symptoms could include mental health issues such as "depression and anxiety", according to a study by a team led by Edward D. Barker, Ph.D., of King's College London.

The team showed the manner in which adverse experiences in the early part of childhood leads on to differences in cortical gray matter volume in the brains of the youth. The brain changes are influenced directly as well as indirectly with changing levels of "childhood internalizing symptoms".

The study was published in JAMA Pediatrics.

The study examined 494 mother-son pairs. The sons went through traumatic experiences through the first six years of their lives, and also took on "internalizing symptoms (depressive and/or anxiety)" when they went through seven, 10 and 13 years.

From late adolescence, the scientists collected imaging data from MRIs.

Due to early adversity, there were changes brain structure, while the "childhood internalizing symptoms" led to less gray matter volume in the brain.

However, the study was conducted only on boys.

"The finding that childhood experiences can affect the brain highlights early childhood not only as a period of vulnerability but also a period of opportunity. Interventions toward adversity might help to prevent children from developing internalizing symptoms and protect against abnormal brain development," the study concludes.