How do early separation experiences impact on structural and functional brain development in children?

Aims: Early separation experiences can disrupt the child’s attachment process and interfere with the psychosocial development of an infant. The current study therefore aimed to investigate the neural mechanisms by which early separation experiences from the primary caregiver influences the maturation of brain circuits associated with social-emotional development.

Methods: 25 Children that grew up with their biological parents and 25 children with an early parental separation experience (between 6th month and 3rd year of life) aged 8–12 underwent a social-exclusion paradigm (CyberBall) in an MRI scanner to investigate the neural correlates of social exclusion. The group were matched for age, sex, IQ and education. Furthermore, structural MR scans were collected in order to conduct hippocampus-volumetry.

Results: We found a hypoactivation of social pain areas (such as the ACC and ventral prefrontal cortex) in cases compared to controls during social exclusion but increased neural activity in trauma-related neural networks such as the medial temporal lobe and the hippocampus in cases with early separation experiences.

Conclusions: Thus, our data suggest that in line with previous animal research early separation experience might impact significantly on structural and functional brain development in children and might thus have a high impact on children's psychological well-being.