These two scans are of the brains of two toddlers of the same age – yet one is significantly bigger.

The image on the left is of a three-year-old brought up in a nurturing environment, while the one on the right is of child who has suffered extreme emotional trauma and neglect.

The pictures provide a hard-hitting visual insight into how an abusive or neglectful childhood can impact the brain structures of youngsters.

They have been shared by Professor Bruce Perry, the chief of psychiatry at Texas Children's Hospital.



This child in the right scan is suffering from 'severe sensory-deprivation neglect', he said, and as a result the brain is far smaller and has far more blurry structures.

It is believed the child lacked any experiences of sound, smell or touch and as a result will have been subjected to an extreme level of abuse.

He wrote: 'These images illustrate the negative impact of neglect on the developing brain.

'In the CT scan on the left is an image from a healthy three-year-old with an average head size.

POOR NUTRITION COULD ALSO HAVE CAUSED THE BRAIN TO BE SMALLER THAN THE OTHER
Although Professor Bruce Perry does not reveal much about the conditions the neglected toddler experienced, he does say there are many likely factors and inadequate nutrition is one key aspect.

He also expands on what he means by severe sensory deprivation and states the child would have been denied the usual contact with sound, smell and touch.

'The image on the right is from a three-year-old child suffering from severe sensory-deprivation neglect.

'This child's brain is significantly smaller than average and has enlarged ventricles and cortical atrophy.'

There were over 58,000 children identified as needing protection from abuse in the UK in 2016, according to the NSPCC. In the US, child abuse reports involved 7.2 million children.


Developmental delays


Such structural damage to the brain means that a child will likely suffer developmental delays and memory problems.

Cortical atrophy is something that is more commonly seen in older people with from Alzheimer's disease as degeneration progresses.

It is well known that some cases of physical abuse can cause immediate direct structural damage to a child’s brain, leading to permanent complications and even fatalities.

For example, according to the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, shaking a child can destroy brain tissue and tear blood vessels.

This can lead to seizures, loss of consciousness, or even death.

In the long-term, shaking can damage the fragile brain so that a child develops a range of sensory impairments, as well as cognitive, learning, and behavioral disabilities.

Abuse early on can have long-lasting effects on children's emotional development.

Dr Perry explains that children who have suffered emotional neglect can struggle to form healthy relationships.

They may end up with attachment disorders, in which they become overly dependent on others, or they may find it difficult to get close to people.


Neglected brains grow twice as slow


Previous research has found that a child's upbringing can impact on their brain structure.

A study by US scientists last year suggested youngster's brains grow at twice the rate of those who are 'neglected'.

Brain scans showed that nurturing provided the most benefit to under-sixes – and even if a mother became more caring when a child was a bit older, those neglected when very young fail to catch up.

A team had analysed 127 children from when they started school until they were teenagers.

To assess their upbringing, their mothers were videoed as they tried to carry out a stressful task in the presence of their child.

Researcher Joan Luby, a child psychiatrist at Washington University, said: 'This study suggests there's a sensitive period when the brain responds more to maternal support.'

Other studies have linked childhood abuse to heart disease and obesity later in life.

Professor Perry concluded in his paper: 'Healthy development of the neural systems which allow optimal social and emotional functioning depends upon attentive, nurturing caregiving in infancy and opportunities to form and maintain a diversity of relationships with other children and adults throughout childhood.'

THE UNDERDEVELOPED BRAIN OF A ROMANIAN ORPHAN
Academics from five British institutions, including Oxford University, studied the brains of troubled youngsters in 2010.

They found that their 'wiring' was affected by the abuse or neglect they suffered as toddlers.

In one example the brains of two three-year-old children were compared.



One child, who was adopted from a Romanian orphanage, had minimal exposure to language, touch and any kind of social interaction.

This boy's brain was smaller than the other, healthy, child's and has enlarged ventricles – holes in the centre.

This might be more environment and less genetic.

Why did they do CT on kids heads? Increases their cancer risk by like 10,000% would neg IRL

are they twins? Poles and ukrainians for example tend to have huge phucking noggins. Brain size does not necessarily translate into IQ.

Isn't there more synapses or more connections in the larger brain? It seems in the neglected one the brain was busy being in fight or flight/survival and didn't grow while the left one was busy making new connections or learning/growing naturally.

Also

'This child's brain is significantly smaller than average and has enlarged ventricles and cortical atrophy.'

Cortical atrophy is something that is more commonly seen in older people with from Alzheimer's disease as degeneration progresses.

bump

Wow that's fukkin sad. Would adopt and nurture the chit out of that kid to try and get some brain gains srs.

Link to where OP got this from...https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...d-neglect.html

OP you reminded of this book that I wanted to get;The Man-Not: Race, Class, Genre, and the Dilemmas of Black Manhood By by Tommy J. Curry

Which talks about the generational abuse and neglect that black boys generationally experience in America.

In the book;Preventing Violence By James Gilligan , violence prevention expert James Gilligan goes into details of the therapeutic intervention that he lead in a violent prison. He said that he discovered that a lot of the prisoners have very fragile sense of self-worth, and had deep and easily triggered feelings of shame. He said that a lot of the work was about helping them to heal their chronic feelings of shame, hidden behind bravado and aggression.

InThe Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence By Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros, they detail with stories and stats the horrific level of violence that afflicts children (and adults) in developing nations, which we don't hear about in the news (we normally only hear about wars and terrorism). Seriously, the first 2 examples they give alone broke my heart... It's one thing for a child to be raped and killed, and it's another thing to be able to buy your way out of being prosecuted, and a family being too poor to buy prosecution for their the murder of their daughter.

Neglect and Abuse can seriously phuck people up.

ya that's pretty ****ed

So basicly you are asking a healthy 3 yr old brain vs Dorich? Is that right?

correlation is not causation, but we do know without the appropriate stimuli and without ample nutrition, your brain won't develop the same way.

neglected checking inyou can't use the word correlation in a heuristic subject like this

correlation is for numbers like "seconds spent teeth brushing vs. grams of bacteria buildup"

I agree with this whole-heartedly which is exactly why gang culture is the worst thing to ever happen to the urban community.

Not just rattled but even the ones that didn't feel affection/love or hugged in the early years of their life. Rattled from your brain being smaller or rattled when a person shakes their baby around? The latter one, when your head hits the front of your skull, that part of your brain is the one that controls your emotions/think center. People that get prefrontal lobe damage end up having same symptoms as a psychopath...

I think I read some other article that mentioned 3 scenarios where one child was nurtured/fed by their mother, but no affection just food, and another where a child was loved by a robot or something and another where the child was loved and nurtured by a robot and mother. The last 2 scenarios did better then the first one just being fed by a human.