Life's adversities permanently alter the human brain
Neuroscientists from St. Radbod Utrecht University Nijmegen (the Netherlands) have found that facing life's adversities can permanently change the way the brain works. Such a reaction is associated with an increased risk of developing mental disorders, such as anxiety, in the future. The scientific paper was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
The human brain develops in many ways depending on what it experiences. A team of researchers from the Netherlands studied the impact of different life adversities on the patterns in the brain and found a number of associations by which it is possible to predict the development of mental disorders in the future.
Thus, the experts analyzed the data of 170 people about whom all the necessary information was collected during life. In particular, they examined factors or events that are known to have a negative impact on a person's development: for example, a mother's smoking during pregnancy, complications during childbirth, childhood abuse or a major accident.
The experts then used the scans to determine the structure of the participants' brains. The images were taken twice: when the subjects were 25 years old and 33 years old.
The scientists used artificial intelligence to find the connection between adversity and patterns in the brain. And the association data was very clear - at both ages. And brain abnormalities from experiencing adversity and deprivation were associated with an increased likelihood of developing an anxiety disorder in the future.
"We can now trace the impact of events that may have sometimes occurred 25 years ago on the brain," says study leader Andre Markan. - And perhaps more importantly, it may help us predict who is more likely to develop mental disorders."
According to the authors of the paper, the findings could ultimately contribute to earlier detection of mental health-related disorders. This would allow health care providers to start treating potential patients earlier and more effectively.