Stress early in life can make a child’s brain more like an adult's

New Scientist Default Image

Children who experience stress in early life have adult-like brain connections

Stephen Voss/Alamy

Some children who experience stress in early life develop adult-like brain networks – and those that do show signs of ageing more slowly. These children also appear to take longer to progress through puberty, too.

That’s what Jonas Miller at Stanford University and his colleagues found when they followed the outcomes of 214 children over two years. The children, between ages 9 and 13 at the start of the study, were asked whether they had witnessed or experienced a range of stressful experiences, such as a natural disaster, …

source: newscientist.com