Scientists from Ohio State University have found that childhood stress is more dangerous than head injuries, causing epigenetic changes in the brain. Research results published at Ohio State University (OSU).
It is known that head injuries in children (for example, from falls) can affect a person’s social behavior in the future, increase the risk of developing mental disorders and trigger a predisposition to alcohol and drug addiction. American scientists have suggested that such changes may be caused not only by trauma, but also by severe stress experienced in childhood.
Scientists conducted an experiment on laboratory mice to determine the mechanisms by which psycho-emotional stress affects gene activity in the brain. Researchers temporarily separated a group of newborn rat pups from their mothers every day for 14 days to induce stress that mimicked the effects of adverse childhood experiences. The scientists also identified a control group in which the rodents were always with their mothers. On the fifteenth day, some of the anesthetized mice suffered concussion-like head trauma.
At the end of the experiment, scientists examined changes in gene expression in the hippocampus region of the test subjects’ brains. The stress experienced (separately and in combination with traumatic brain injury) led to genetic changes in the brain’s excitatory and inhibitory neurons, which are associated with the brain’s ability to adapt to changes in environmental conditions. It was also observed that mice that had previously experienced stress exhibited risky behavior more frequently than rodents that had suffered traumatic brain injury. The animals were often found in the open, which made the rodents feel vulnerable to predators.
Scientists suggest that the effects of severe childhood stress may be more dangerous to humans than head trauma. Researchers believe that genetic changes in the brain caused by stress are associated with an increased risk of developing ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), drug and alcohol addiction, and self-destructive behavior.
Psychologists before to create The relationship between stress during pregnancy and child aggression.