"Abuse stunts one part of the young mind, says a new study" 

 Smacking, slapping or even shouting at children can significantly and
 permanently alter the structure of their brains and lead to long-term
 behavioural problems, new research in the United States has revealed. 

 The findings - by senior consultants at McLean's Hospital, a 
 psychiatric centre affiliated to Harvard Medical School, in 
 Massachusetts - fundamentally challenge many of the basic precepts of
 childcare and of orthodox psychiatry. 

 Dr Martin Teicher, who led the study team, said there was evidence 
 that emotional trauma in childhood could cause deformities in 
 critical parts of the brain, in turn causing depression, anxiety and
 other conditions. 

 'The brain is fundamentally sculpted by our experiences. Adverse 
 experience will sculpt our brain in a different way,' Teicher said.
 'We are finding that verbal abuse is devastating... These changes are
 permanent. It is not something people can just get over and then get
 on with their lives.' 

 His team took hundreds of brain scans from children who had been 
 admitted to the hospital. ... They found that in the children who had
 been neglected or abused, the corpus callosum , the bundle of nerves 
 that links the two hemispheres of the brain and act as the main 
 information pathway between them, was up to 40 per cent smaller than
 average. 

 An underdeveloped corpus callosum inhibits communication between one
 hemisphere and the other, the researchers claimed. As a result 
 children could end up 'residing' in one hemisphere rather than moving
 rapidly and easily from one to the other, as is usual. 

 The left brain hemisphere controls the right side of the body, and is 
 where logical, rational thought and use of language takes place. The
 right hemisphere controls the left side, and is the location for
 creative and emotional thought. An over-favouring of one side or the
 other can cause serious problems. 'A lot of individuals who have 
 survived childhood trauma reside in their left hemisphere when they 
 function well. But when traumatic thoughts arise, they retreat into 
 their right,' said Teicher. 'They can get very emotional, without any
 of the logic of the left side there to guide them.'

 Modern neuroscientific research has centred on the way the brain 
 physically changes in response to external stimuli. 

 Peter Wilson, director of the children's mental health charity Young
 Minds, said modern research showed how vulnerable the very young are: 
 'We are learning that the brain is an evolving organism, and is 
 growing and developing an enormous amount in infancy. It is not static
 and inert but responds to its environment.

 'These new findings show what very powerful effect negative
 experiences have on children's emotional lives and their subsequent
 development.'

 Experiments with animals have shown that neurons in the brain react to
 certain experiences during its early growth. Stresses at critical
 periods determine whether certain parts of the brain grow or die.

 Jason Burke, chief reporter
 Sunday December 31, 2000
 The Observer
 
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 `Perceptions' note:

 little late confirming forecasts in "conditioning devices" page
 (Google)

 late also, news in "medicalnote" page

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