Severe childhood deprivation reduces brain size, study finds

[debsy]

Children who experience severe deprivation early in life have smaller brains in adulthood, researchers have found.

The findings are based on scans of young adults who were adopted as children into UK families from Romania’s orphanages that rose under the regime of the dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu.

Now experts say that despite the children having been adopted into loving, nurturing families in the early 1990s, the early neglect appears to have left its mark on their brain structures.

“I think the most striking finding is … that the effects on the brain have persisted,” said Prof Edmund Sonuga-Barke, a co-author of the study from King’s College London, who added that the results showed neuroplasticity had limits.

[link:https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/06/severe-childhood-deprivation-reduces-brain-size-study-finds|]

And the U.S. is doing the same thing to immigrant children.

[debsy]

2. I insult the Romanian children?

This is a scientific study that I posted because of its relation to current events (immigrant children at our southern border). It was not meant to be insulting to the Romanian children. If you read the article, it isn't insulting to the Romanian children either. It is a scientifically based study that shows the importance of early childhood nurturing.

[Bettie]

3. The Romanian children spoken of in the study

were horribly neglected. And they suffered for it. It is a window into what Trump is doing to immigrant children.

From the article:

“The idea that everything is recoverable, no matter what your experience … isn’t necessarily true – even with the best care you can still see those signs of that earlier adversity,” he said.

The plight of the undernourished children, who had little social contact and received insufficient care, shocked the world when it came to light after the fall of the communist government in 1989. Ceauşescu’s oppressive policies had banned abortion and contraception, while those without children were taxed. As a result, large numbers of children ended up in orphanages living in terrible conditions.

Previous studies involving the adoptees have shown they had marked cognitive difficulties as children – although these improved considerably into adulthood – while they also had high rates of conditions including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and, as adults, high levels of anxiety and depression.

[yardwork]

4. So now we're not allowed to discuss scientific studies?