Scientists have proven: childhood traumas leave a physical mark on the brain

Scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles have established that childhood maltreatment leaves a physical mark on the human brain. A large-scale study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry showed that experienced abuse directly alters the thickness of the cerebral cortex and the volume of individual brain regions.

The researchers analyzed magnetic resonance imaging scans of 3,711 individuals from eight countries around the world. The sample included patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, as well as healthy volunteers. Each participant completed questionnaires based on which the scientists assessed the severity of childhood abuse experienced. By comparing the obtained images with charts of normal brain development, the team discovered a troubling pattern: severe maltreatment leads to abnormal increases in the volume of the thalamus and globus pallidus, thinning of the cingulate gyrus, and expansion of the orbitofrontal cortex.

In practice, such deviations may manifest as a lack of impulse control, difficulties with planning and following through on tasks, as well as emotional rigidity that causes a person to become irritable when confronted with even minimal challenges.

"We know that childhood trauma is the leading risk factor for many disorders, including depression and PTSD, and we wanted to find out whether these experiences leave a kind of neurobiological scar," explained the study's author, UCLA professor of psychology Tiffany Ho.

During childhood, the brain actively builds neural connections and has heightened sensitivity to external conditions — a property specialists call neuroplasticity. An adverse environment during this critical period can permanently distort the development of specific regions. Moreover, the consequences of abuse proved most pronounced in young women — presumably because girls are more frequently subjected to sexual violence and their brains react more acutely to stress. In men, the changes were less noticeable in nature.

Emotional neglect of a child's needs, in turn, caused more localized shifts. In young men, it affected only the temporal lobe, while in young women it was limited to areas of the corpus callosum. The study authors emphasize that the identified abnormalities do not allow conclusions to be drawn about a person's intellectual abilities; however, they irrefutably demonstrate the real physiological consequences of psychological trauma.