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A baby taken from the mother for even a short period early in life experienced traumatic event, this alters the future and adult function of the brain, according to a new animal model study from the School of Science at IUPUI. These changes in the brain are similar to disturbances in brain structure and function that are found in people at risk for neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia.
The study was conducted in the laboratory of associate professor of psychology Christopher Lapish. In the study, young rats were removed from their mothers for 24 hours when they were nine days old, a critical period of brain development. The resulting scans revealed that, unlike animals that were not separated from their mother during this crucial period, the separated rats exhibited significant behavioral, as well as biological and physiological, brain abnormalities in adulthood.
Rat and human brains have similar structure and connectivity, understanding how the brain responds can leads to development of novel treatment strategies to reverse neurological changes. In the study, memory impair communication between brain regions, in the animals that had been removed from their mothers, among other neurological changes. Children exposed to early-life stress or deprivation are at higher risk for mental illness and addictions later in life, including schizophrenia.
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