Abused children tend to develop lifelong emotional and physical problems, and now UW-Madison scientists may have found a biological reason: Maltreatment appears to turn off a gene that regulates stress.
Mental Health
Early life stress can leave lasting impacts on the brain
For children, stress can go a long way. A little bit provides a platform for learning, adapting and coping. But a lot of it — chronic, toxic stress like poverty, neglect and physical abuse — can have lasting negative impacts.
Julie Poehlmann, Sesame Workshop help kids
“Lots of families didn’t know how to talk about it. Does a 3-year-old really understand when one of their parents in is jail?”
Professor helps ‘Sesame Street’ reach children of imprisoned parents
By Käri Knutson It doesn’t get talked about much, yet nearly 2.7 million children are growing up with a parent who is in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. What do you tell …
Seth Pollak, PhD, discusses how childhood environment can shape the human brain on “Office Hours”
How does childhood environment shape the human brain? Can caregiver abuse and neglect – as well as nurturing – promote behaviors and reaction patterns that last a lifetime?
Maternal mental health research by Witt and Coe cited
At least one in 13 pregnant women suffers from mental health problems…
Whitney Witt study finds women’s mental health during pregnancy impacted by their history
A woman with a history of poor mental health is eight times more likely to have the problem occur during pregnancy, a new study shows.
The science of healthy minds brings Dalai Lama to UW-Madison
The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Waisman Center will welcome His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to its public grand-opening celebration Saturday-Sunday, May 15-16. UW-Madison neuroscientist Richard Davidson established the …
Expectant Brains Help Predict Anxiety Treatment Success
A network of emotion-regulating brain regions implicated in the pathological worry that can grip patients with anxiety disorders may also be useful for predicting the benefits of treatment.
How do mothers process emotion about their own babies?
When a new mom gazes at her baby, it’s not just her mood that lights up – it’s also a brain region associated with emotion processing, according to a new UW-Madison study.