The brain also ages as a result of psychological trauma
of the brain ). They found that the consequences of psychological trauma were related to all three signs of early maturation .
These researchers studied two categories of adversity separately : That which stems from threats , such as abuse and violence , as well as adversity related to situations of deprivation , such as poverty , physical abandonment and emotional neglect .
After analysing nearly 80 studies involving more than 116,000 participants , they found that children who experienced childhood trauma related to threats , such as violence or abuse , were more likely to enter puberty early and show signs of accelerated “ ageing ” at the cellular level , including shorter telomeres , which are the “ protective caps ” on the ends of our DNA strands that wear down as we age .
The brain also ages as a result of psychological trauma
In a second analysis , these researchers reviewed 25 studies that included more than 3,253 participants to understand how adversity at a young age can affect brain development . They discovered that trauma is associated with a reduction in cortical thickness , a sign of ageing since the cerebral cortex thins as the years go by .
In fact , they found that each type of adversity is related to a cortical reduction in different parts of the brain . Trauma and violence were associated with thinning of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex , an area involved in social and emotional processing . Instead , deprivation situations were related to a thinning of the visual networks and the frontoparietal area , which are linked to sensory and cognitive processing . This means that different types of trauma have a different impact at the brain level .
The researchers think that this accelerated ageing could be an evolutionary adaptation . Centuries ago , in a violent and threatening environment , for example , reaching puberty earlier could increase the chances that children would be able to leave home and live on their own .
In addition , faster development of brain regions that play a key role in emotion processing could help children identify and respond to threats more assertively , keeping them safer in a dangerous environment .
However , the adaptations that were once useful today have serious consequences for physical and mental health since these children would be