14 DAY TRIAL // According to investigators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM), it would appear that stress can hamper the development of a critically important area of the brain in children. The prefrontal cortex, which is most affected, encodes complex cognitive abilities.
The conclusion belongs to a series of studies conducted on animals. A lot of research was conducted on this issue, and the emerging view is that stress tends to hamper the development of the prefrontal cortex substantially. The tests suggest that the same may be true in humans as well.
UWM psychology graduate student, Jamie Hanson, says that the new study confirms this belief. In addition to supporting the hypothesis, the team was also able to find that the amount of stress exposure children endure is directly proportional to the severity of development issues they then display.
“We’re not trying to argue that stress permanently scars your brain. We don’t know if and how it is that stress affects the brain. We only have a snapshot and at this point we don’t understand whether this is just a delay in development or a lasting difference,” Hanson concludes, quoted by PsychCentral.