Tweet
WASHINGTON: A study focusing on the role of a important brain chemical sheds new light on why victims of childhood abuse may themselves become abusers as adults, and points to a possible remedy, researchers said on Thursday.
They looked at levels of serotonin a chemical that transmits impulses in the brain in rhesus monkeys, but has implications for understanding child abuse in people because of biological similarities in humans and monkeys, they said.
When baby monkeys in the study experienced high amounts of abuse and rejection from their mother in the month after birth, their brains often produced less serotonin. Low levels of serotonin are linked to anxiety, depression and aggression in monkeys and people.
The researchers followed monkey infants from birth into adulthood. They found that female monkeys that had been abused by their mothers as infants and later became abusive mothers had about 10 to 20% less serotonin than females that had been abused as babies but did not become abusive parents.
Experts have known that suffering childhood abuse raises the probability a person will become an abusive parent, and have tried to find the reason for example, repeating behaviour learnt early in life or, alternatively, long-term changes in brain processes governing emotions.
"Our results suggest that the system is affected by early trauma, early experience, and that these long-term changes in the brain might contribute to the occurrence of abusive parenting in adulthood," University of Chicago researcher Dario Maestripieri said in an interview.
Maestripieri, lead author of the study in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience, said if research confirms that the same changes in brain development also occur in humans, then there could be the potential for intervention using drugs.
They looked at levels of serotonin a chemical that transmits impulses in the brain in rhesus monkeys, but has implications for understanding child abuse in people because of biological similarities in humans and monkeys, they said.
When baby monkeys in the study experienced high amounts of abuse and rejection from their mother in the month after birth, their brains often produced less serotonin. Low levels of serotonin are linked to anxiety, depression and aggression in monkeys and people.
The researchers followed monkey infants from birth into adulthood. They found that female monkeys that had been abused by their mothers as infants and later became abusive mothers had about 10 to 20% less serotonin than females that had been abused as babies but did not become abusive parents.
Experts have known that suffering childhood abuse raises the probability a person will become an abusive parent, and have tried to find the reason for example, repeating behaviour learnt early in life or, alternatively, long-term changes in brain processes governing emotions.
"Our results suggest that the system is affected by early trauma, early experience, and that these long-term changes in the brain might contribute to the occurrence of abusive parenting in adulthood," University of Chicago researcher Dario Maestripieri said in an interview.
Maestripieri, lead author of the study in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience, said if research confirms that the same changes in brain development also occur in humans, then there could be the potential for intervention using drugs.
hehe 
�-)��O.o���]״)���
Comment