Early neglect may disrupt how the brain fine-tunes itself during adolescence
Children who spent their earliest years in Romanian orphanages showed lasting differences in how their brain activity matured through adolescence, a long-running study finds. These differences tracked with poorer attention and self-control, and foster care did not erase them.
A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that early neglect may disrupt how the brain fine-tunes itself during adolescence. The research, led by Marta Andujar of the National Institute of Mental Health, used data from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project in Romania, where young children living in state-run institutions were randomly assigned to either move into high-quality foster care or continue receiving institutional care.
The study included 163 participants, with assessments conducted at ages 12, 16, and 21. While brain activity normally becomes quicker to stabilize during adolescence, participants who experienced institutional care showed lasting differences in brain activity development and poorer performance on a task requiring attention and self-control.
This suggests that severe psychosocial deprivation early in life could interrupt the process of synaptic pruning, which helps brain activity settle back to its typical pattern more quickly after being knocked off course, ultimately supporting more efficient thinking.
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