Experience Affects Brain Development - Childhood is a time for learning (languages, music, motor skills most easily acquired) - Number of synapses increases dramatically after birth - Environment stimulated neuronal activity is critical for the elaboration of synaptic territories and "proper" connections

1. Psychobiology of
Trauma
Daryush Parvinbenam,
LPCC-S

2. Brain Development
 Experience Affects Brain Development
– Childhood is a time for learning
(languages, music, motor skills most
easily acquired)
– Number of synapses increases
dramatically after birth
– Environment stimulated neuronal activity
is critical for elaboration of synaptic
territories and "proper' connections

3. Brain Development
 Brain Growth
 From Birth to 6 Yrs - dramatic brain growth
 Yet, 1/2 to 2/3's of neurons born in fetal
development will die programmed deaths!
 Growth due to elongation of axons,
expansion of dendrites as synapses form,
and myelination
 Although pure cognitive functions are
established by mid-adolescence, emotional
components mature well into adulthood

4. Brain Development
 Selective Neuronal Death Shapes the
Developing Nervous System
 Half of all neurons die during development
 Only neurons with the right synaptic
connections will survive

5. Brain Development
 Attachment
– Attachment refers to the organization of
behavior within an infant-caretaker relationship
– In human infants, attachment is at the core of
the regulation of emotional experience
– Four major patterns of attachment (secure,
anxious-avoidant, anxious-resistant, and
disoriented-disorganized (type D))

6. Brain Development
 Key Features of Infant Social and Emotional
Development
– Infants are born with remarkable faculties. They
can imitate facial expressions, learn to manipulate
their environments, and show preferences for
caregivers.
– Infants have a need to seek out interaction with
others (e.g., "still-face" paradigm).
– Infants can elicit social and emotional responses
from caregivers.

7. Brain Development
 Key Features of Infant Social and Emotional
Development (con)
– Communication between mothers and infants is
organized around face, voice, gesture, and gaze
– There is mutual and synergistic regulation ("a dance")
– Secure attachment is the cornerstone of early social and
emotional development
– Communication directly influences, and is influenced by,
brain development and emerging physiological
regulation

8. Trauma and Brain
 McLean (1990) defined the brain as a detecting,
amplifying, and analyzing device for maintaining
us in our internal and external environment. These
functions range from the visceral regulation of
oxygen intake and temperature balance to the
categorization of incoming information necessary
for making complex, long term decisions affecting
both individual and social systems.

9. Trauma and Brain
 Structure of the brain is divided in 3 main regions
 1- The brain stem and hypothalamus, which are
primarily associated with the regulation of
internal homeostasis.
 2- The limbic system, which is charged with
maintaining the balance
between the internal world and external reality.
 3- The neo-cortex, which is responsible for
analyzing and interacting with
the external world.

10. Trauma and Brain
 The brain stem, hypothalamus, limbic system, and
the neo-cortex in concert monitor relations with the
outside world and assess what is new, dangerous,
or gratifying.
 To accomplish this assessment, the brain needs to
take in new sensory information, categorize its
importance, and integrate it with previously stored
knowledge.

11. Trauma and Brain
 Most importantly, it needs to determine what
is significant, and filter out irrelevant
information. After the meaning of an
incoming signal has been categorized, the
brain (usually unconsciously) needs to
"formulate" an appropriate plan of action,
while attending to both short-term and long-
term consequences.

12. Trauma and Brain
 This evaluation then needs to lead to the
initiation of an appropriate response, which
needs to be terminated once the challenge
is gone.
 People need to learn to discriminate
relevant from irrelevant stimuli, and to only
select what is appropriate for achieving
one's goals

13. Trauma and Brain
 Much evolution of the human brain has
consisted of developing the capacity to form
highly complex mental images and
collaborative social relationships that allow
complex thought in the context of social
systems! For this to be successful, the
organism needs to integrate its own
immediate self-interest with a capacity to
adhere to complex social rules.

14. Trauma and Brain
 People with PTSD usually have serious problems
carrying out a host of these functions.
 The degree of impairment is determined not only
by the severity of their PTSD symptomatology, but
also by the age at which the trauma occurred, the
length of time that the traumatic event lasted, and
the degree of social support that the individual
received.

15. Trauma and Brain
 The power of one's intellect is determined by one's
perceptual processing style. The ability to comprehend
(i.e., grasp, hold together, take hold of) depends on
stimulus sampling and the formation of schematic
representations of reality.
 There seem to be qualitatively significant differences
between the ways people with PTSD, and the ways in
which non-traumatized people categorize their experience.
 Failure to integrate the experience (i.e., to dissociate) plays
a critical role in making a stressful experience traumatic.

16. Impact of Trauma
 Trauma and Brain Damage Human Data:
– Combat PTSD patients had 8% decrease in
right hippocampus volume compared with
matched controls - correlated (r=0.64; p< 0.05)
with memory retention deficits
– Female child abuse PTSD patients had 12%
decrease in left hippocampus volume when
Compared With Controls (Bremneretal., 1997)

17. Impact of Trauma
 Social & Emotional Deficits in Maltreated Children:
– Maltreated children have lower social competence
– Have less empathy for others
– Have difficulty in recognizing other's emotions
– Are less able to recognize their own emotional states
– Are more likely to be insecurely attached to their parents

18. Impact of Trauma
 Many studies have demonstrated significant
memory impairments in victims of trauma
including autobiographical memories and
explicit free recall short-term memories