Early-life stress leaves a 'scar' inside brain cells

(medicine.washu.edu)

28 points | by gmays 8 hours ago ago

8 comments

  • redrix 3 hours ago

    I remember having it drilled into me in High School that unless you did well on your finals:

    1. You wouldn’t get the score you needed to get into a good University and/or accepted into the course you wanted. 2. If you didn’t get into that course, you wouldn’t be able to do <x> for a career. 3. If you DID get into the course you wanted, it needed to be at a top University (which of course required an even higher entry score) or else you’d find it hard to get a job afterwards.

    Imagine all of that stress: Telling 16-18 year olds that unless you ace your tests, you won’t be able to do what you want to in life.

    • NewJazz 2 hours ago

      I remember having it drilled into me in high school that I was procrastinating school work while at my mom's to avoid spending time with my dad and I was faking my sobbing for sympathy and I was a horrible person who was lucky to have a dad as good as I had and how I keep doing the same things wrong and I am a smartass prick who doesn't care about anyone but myself.

      12-14 was rough.

      School work stress was quite tame by comparison. At least your teachers don't scream at you for hours until you forget why.

    • leoh 7 minutes ago

      I remember having this in middle school, it was a nightmare and majorly fucked me up

    • golly_ned an hour ago

      I don't think that's what they mean by 'early-life'.

  • jdw64 19 minutes ago

    Then my brain must be full of scars.

  • ls612 an hour ago

    In mice.

    • leoh 5 minutes ago

      "In mice" is the right caveat for outcomes and the wrong one for mechanisms. Nobody’s selling you a drug here--they’re describing a chromatin change, and that’s the part rodents are actually good for.

      The alternative study design is randomizing infants to early-life stress and biopsying their hippocampi at 30. Committee’s still reviewing it.

  • nemosaltat 3 hours ago

    When our Little, Stuart falls down we don’t even know what he remembers. [in mice]