De hersenen van kinderen die opgroeien in armoede zijn kleiner (1). De hersenencellen (en dus de hersenen) van muizen, die zich ontwikkelen in een sterk stimulerende omgeving zijn complexer (en maken dus complexere netwerken mogelijk) dan wanneer de muizen opgroeien in een ontwikkelingsarme omgeving (2).
Kinderen sterven wanneer zij vanaf
hun geboorte verzorgd worden in een omgeving zonder emoties en affectie. (3).
(1)
This figure shows total gray matter volume for group by age. Age in months
is shown on the horizontal axis, spanning from 5 to 37 months. Total gray
matter volume is shown on the vertical axis. The blue line shows children from
Low socio-economic status (SES) households; children from Mid SES households
are shown in red. The green line shows children from High SES households.
Credit: Jamie L. Hanson, Nicole Hair, Dinggang G.
Shen, Feng Shi, John H. Gilmore, Barbara L. Wolfe, Seth D. Pollak. Family
Poverty Affects the Rate of Human Infant Brain Growth. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (12):
e80954 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080954 University of Wisconsin-Madison.
(2) Mice raised
in an impoverished environment (a) show less dendrite growth (c) than do mice
raised in an enriched environment (b, d). Curriculum Supplement Series. The brain: Our Sense of
Self. Teacher’s Guide. Office of Science Education. National Institutes of Health.
(3) “The harrowing consequences of these theories were most vividly
brought to light in Romania in the 1980s and ’90s, when a ban on abortion led
to a surge in orphanage babies. The longer these children were left in their
cribs, simply being fed and changed without individualized affection, the more
damage was seen, even if the orphanage was clean and well-run. Many children
developed autistic-like behaviors, repetitively rocking or banging their heads.
Some were cold and withdrawn or indiscriminately affectionate; some alternated
between these extremes. And they simply didn’t grow like normal infants: their
head circumferences were abnormally small and they had problems with attention
and comprehension. Measure of a Mother’s Love: How Early Neglect Derails Child Development. May 24, 2012.
TIME
