20-year MRI study sheds light on neurological impact of stress in children, adolescents—amid US immigration debate
A study, 20 years in the making, found that stressful environments for children and adolescents can have long-lasting impact on neurological development. The research—published June 15 in Nature, Scientific Reports—found that continued exposure to stress contributes to slower maturation of the brain during adolescence.
"These findings suggest that early-life stress accelerates pubertal development, whereas an adverse adolescent social environment disturbs brain maturation with potential mental health implications: delayed anterior cingulate maturation was associated with more antisocial traits—a juvenile precursor of psychopathy," wrote lead author Anna Tyborowska, MSc, a PhD student at Radboud University's Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging.
In 1998, a cohort of 129 then-1-year-old children and their parents was recruited and examined by university researchers during interactions with friends and family. The children were also given multiple MRIs over the next 20 years.
The researchers analyzed the effects of stress on the natural "pruning" process in the children's brain, which the researchers described as when "previously formed connections between brain cells are reversed and more efficient networks take their place.” Researchers specifically looked at two different causes of stress: negative life events and influences from a social environment.
The researchers did this during two phases of the participants' lives—first, during early childhood (between 0 and 5 years) and then during adolescence (14 to 17 years). The team compared the stress experienced during the two phases of life with the "pruning" process in regions of the brain that are vital for functioning in social and emotional situations, including the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus.
"Stress resulting from negative experiences during early childhood, such as illness or separation, appears to coincide with a faster maturation of the prefrontal cortex and amygdala during puberty," according to a news release from Radbound University. "This, while stress arising from a negative social environment during puberty such as a poor position in the group of classmates, is related to slower maturing of brain areas such as the hippocampus and another area in the prefrontal cortex."
Researchers also noted that social stress later in life provided for a slower maturation of the brain during puberty.
"Now that we know that stress influences the maturation of the brain areas that also play a role in the control of our emotions, we can look at how this development takes place in the future," Tyborowska said in a prepared statement. "When you grow up in a stressful environment, it is evolutionary to be able to mature more quickly. But on the other hand, the brain also loses its flexibility, which means you cannot adapt as well to your environment."
The study was published in a politically charge climate surrounding possible neurological effects related to children forcibly separated from parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Between April and May, more than 2,000 children were separated from parents by the by U.S. Border Patrol. Many in the medical community are pointing to potential neurological effects of such a policy.
"There's so much research on this that if people paid attention at all tot he science, they would never do this," said Charles Nelson, PhD, a pediatrics professor at Harvard Medical School, in a Washington Post article published June 18.
Wednesday, June 20, Trump signed an executive order to end family separations, by detaining entire families together "where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources."
"If you take the moral, spiritual, even political aspect out of it, from a strictly medical and scientific point of view, what we as a country are doing to these children at the border is unconscionable,” said Luis Zayas, PhD, a psychiatry professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Post.
A recent graduate from Dominican University (IL) with a bachelor’s in journalism, Melissa joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering all aspects of health imaging. She’s a fan of singing and playing guitar, elephants, a good cup of tea, and her golden retriever Cooper.