on pbs.
John: Childhood trauma can have
lasting psychology effects and
now Barone Lopez reports that a
new study has found that early
childhood stress from things
like poverty and trauma can
actually change the structure of
children's developing brains.
>> For this study, researchers
at Harvard analyzed thousands of
M.R.I. Brain scans of children
ages 9 and 10.
They identified small physical
changes in children facing
higher levels of adversity.
These changes could play a role
in mental health later in life.
They concluded that black
children are more likely tock
affected.
The doctor is the study's senior
author.
Nathaniel, thanks so much for
joining us.
How did you identify the
children facing adversity in
this study?
>> We looked at indexings of
adversity for parapets pants
that participated in the
adolescent brain study.
This is a broad study happening
across the United States.
He looked at neighborhood
disadvantage.
The resources in their
neighborhoods.
Levels of family conflict and
things like material hardship.
How hard it is to put food on
the table.
We saw that over and above black
children that were sampled had
much more adversity than white
children in the sample.
>> Then you specifically looked
at the M.R.I. Brain scandals of
plaque and white children.
What did they reveal?
>> We looked particularly at
brain regions volume so --
involved in emotion.
How we regulate and respond to
threatening events in our
environment.
When we look at those brain
regions and compare white and
black children exposed to
different levels of adversity.
Black children have relatively
smaller volume of these
different brain regions compared
to white children.
Not massive differences but
significant and we worry about
how those might change over time
and contribute to over mental
health disorders.
>> And it was a lower volume of
gray matter, correct?
>> Yes.
>> Specifically when you say
that that impacts black children
more, what does that translate
to in flair lives?
>> It's hard to say exactly from
this study but we know from the
literature that lower gray
matter volume in regions like
this are associated with
psychiatric orders like PTSD,
depression and anxiety.
As we look at what happens to
their rains -- brains later on.
Part of what we might see is an
increased incidentals of these
disorders.
>> And was racism at all one of
the stressors or the impact of
race similar?
>> We looked at indecember cisse
of all-star racism in the study.
Things impacted by socio-and
historical decisions that
disproportionately affect black
children.
We didn't have data from when
the kids were 9 to 10.
We only had that data as they
got older so it's difficult to
say but we're hoping to look at
that in the future.
>> And are these changes
reversible, the changes that
were made in these children's
made and what could policymakers
do to fix it?
>> I think the fact that the
differences we see are so small
indicate that they are
potentially reversible and that
by increasing the amount of
resources that parents have,
that these children have access
to those at a structural level
could bell all kids.
Not just black children, and
help reverse these type of
damages.
As a neurosurgeon it's hard to
come up with policy decisions
but anything that's going to
help diminish these things that
are having real impacts on the
children is going to be
beneficial.
>> What do we know about the
impact on potentially other
ethnicities?
>> One of the major limitations
is that we only looked at black
and white children in the study.
It's a relatively restricted age
range, only about 9- 9 to 10
years old.
We want to look at earlier ages,
furtherout ages.
What might be happening over
time.
Because racial factors can
interact differently we want to
bring on more researchers with
expertise in these areas before
we dig around and try to findout
what's happening there.
>> One of the things you wanted
to do in this research was to
dispel this idea, this folk
belief that black and white
people have different brains.
Do you feel you've accomplished
that?
>> I feel we've contributed to
that literature in a positive
way.
There seems to be this idea that
people are essentially different
and I think what we're really
showing here is that a huge part
of what's different between
black and white kids is that
they're disposed to a
disproposition that the amount
of adversity.
>> Nathaniel, thank you so much
for your time.