“Given the proper environmental conditions and stimuli, humans have the ability to advance.”
This is from an earlier thread on FR about an article on violence in young children in Baltimore schools published in today’s Baltimore Sun. It’s pretty much how the stress of living with violence and fear affect the kids’ behavior and intellect.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3237025/posts
This is research that is both explanatory and awful.
“Carrion has compared the MRI brain scans of highly stressed children, including those who live amid violence, to those of healthy youngsters. They showed overall decreased brain volume in children with high cortisol levels. Key areas responsible for complex learning also were smaller. The work, among the newest findings in the field, is still in its early stages and needs more development, but some scientists consider it significant.
Researchers like Carrion believe that — in a child who can’t sit still in school, or is so agitated that he or she throws a chair — the brain is so busy fending off stress that other key areas don’t develop properly. Carrion’s scans of stressed children found a smaller prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for executive functions such as attention span, planning and organizing, goal-setting and behavior control. Carrion also gave the stressed children attention and memory tests — and the prefrontal cortex was not as active.
Other brain scan studies showed stunted growth of the hippocampus, which may inhibit a child’s ability to form new memories, learn or control emotions. The symptoms were worse for kids who experienced trauma more directly, Carrion said.”
Thank you for providing the very informative link.