Stress can alter the development of various parts of the brain in children and adolescents, and impair certain abilities such as spatial and short-term memory, according to a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience .
During the first years of life the brain continues to develop and is vulnerable to external factors such as stress. The researchers, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, evaluated through interviews the stress level of 60 adolescents between 9 and 14 years old, who also underwent a brain scan and various intelligence tests. The results revealed that children who had suffered more traumatic episodes throughout their lives had lower spatial and short-term memory than their peers. In addition, some areas such as the anterior cingulate cortex were less developed, and both the amounts of gray matter and white matter were less.
However, these differences do not have to be irreversible . "The results are not saying that stress permanently damages the brain," explains Jamie Hanson, one of the authors. "The effects could only be temporary, since the brain is very plastic, very prone to change, and can re-adapt."
The new research will be aimed precisely at finding methods to help these adolescents to 'catch up' to their brain after successive traumatic episodes.
