February 1, 2013
There is no stronger evidence available today directly proving the importance of parenting than brain scans comparing the brains of those who were raised in a loving supportive environment and those who were raised with abuse and neglect.
A recent study out of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has shown that school aged children of mothers who had been more nurturing throughout their early years have larger, healthier brains.
Studying 92 children, evaluating objectively how nurturing their mothers were when the child was performing an emotionally stressful task, the researchers then conducted scans of the children’s brains. They found that children whose mothers were objectively identified as more nurturing each had a significantly larger hippocampus, the region of the brain responsible for memory, stress control, learning, among other things. The hippocampi of the neglected children were up to 10% smaller than those of the children whose mothers were more caring and loving.
Take a look at the stark contrast in these comparison photos.