Childhood trauma can have lasting psychological effects. A new study has found that early childhood stress from racism, poverty and other traumas can change the structure of children’s developing brains. Nathaniel Harnett, a neuroscientist at McLean Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, joins Laura Barrón-López to discuss the study’s findings in this video.
Full Title: Racial Disparities in Adversity During Childhood and the False Appearance of Race-Related Differences in Brain Structure
Methods:
The sample included 7,350 White American and 1,786 Black American children (ages 9–10) from the Ado- lescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (public data release 2.0). Structural MRI data, parent and child self-reports of adversity-related measures, and U.S. Census neighbor- hood data were used to investigate the relationship between racial disparities in adversity exposure and race-related dif- ferences in brain structure.
Results from the study included that:
Black children experienced more traumatic events, family conflict, and material hardship on average compared with White children, and their parents or caregivers had lower educational attainment, lower income, and more unemployment compared with those of White children. Black children showed lower amygdala, hippocampus, and PFC gray matter volumes compared with White children. The volumes of the PFC and amygdala, but not the hippocampus, also varied with metrics of childhood adversity, with income being the most common predictor of brain volume differences. Accounting for differences in childhood adversity attenuated the magnitude of some race-related differences in gray matter volume.
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Image source: PBS News
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