How do abuse and other forms of early-life adversity alter the development of the brain? If and when such changes do occur, how are they related to the emergence of psychiatric symptoms?
These important questions are at the focus of research led by Ryan J. Herringa, M.D., Ph.D., a 2012 BBRF Young Investigator, and a team that included Katie McLaughlin, Ph.D., a 2013 BBRF Young Investigator and winner of the 2016 BBRF Klerman Prize, and Josh Cisler, Ph.D., a 2014 BBRF Young Investigator.
In a paper appearing in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the team reported that in girls who were abused at a young age, various aspects of brain development were indeed altered, although in patterns that differed in girls who went on to develop psychiatric symptoms compared with girls who had not developed symptoms at the time the study was conducted.
Read the full article here.