I imagine that researchers can write about topics such as this one without being ’emotionally involved’ with their topic. If so, then this is what makes my writing different from theirs. The condition they write about is one I have intimate experience with — only my isolation began at birth, not at post-weaning.
What follows here are my ‘pre-notes’ for the following article that I will be considering in depth in following posts:
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PMID: 18423591 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2008 Aug;32(6):1087-102. Epub 2008 Mar 18.
Behavioural and neurochemical effects of post-weaning social isolation in rodents-relevance to developmental neuropsychiatric disorders.
Institute of Neuroscience, School of Biomedical Sciences, Medical School, Queen’s Medical Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK. kevin.fone@nottingham.ac.uk
ABSTRACT: Exposing mammals to early-life adverse events, including maternal separation or social isolation, profoundly affects brain development and adult behaviour and may contribute to the occurrence of psychiatric disorders, such as depression and schizophrenia in genetically predisposed humans. The molecular mechanisms underlying these environmentally induced developmental adaptations are unclear and best evaluated in animal paradigms with translational salience. Rearing rat pups from weaning in isolation, to prevent social contact with conspecifics, produces reproducible, long-term changes including; neophobia, impaired sensorimotor gating, aggression, cognitive rigidity, reduced prefrontal cortical volume and decreased cortical and hippocampal synaptic plasticity. These alterations are associated with hyperfunction of mesolimbic dopaminergic systems, enhanced presynaptic dopamine (DA) and serotonergic (5-HT) function in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), hypofunction of mesocortical DA and attenuated 5-HT function in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. These behavioural, morphological and neurochemical abnormalities, as reviewed herein, strongly resemble core features of schizophrenia. Therefore unravelling the mechanisms that trigger these sequelae will improve our knowledge of the aetiology of neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders, enable identification of longitudinal biomarkers of dysfunction and permit predictive screening for novel compounds with potential antipsychotic efficacy.
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First of all I will say that from my perspective as a survivor of severe abuse from birth, the consequences documented in this article go far beyond what the authors are describing. While I cannot change the official diagnostic criteria for depression or schizophrenia, I can suggest that all these changes exist on a continuum rather than belonging simply to such ‘gigantic’ main categories.
I suspect that in 45 – 50% of cases infants and young children receive less than the optimal quality of caregiver interaction which leads to some form of ‘attachment disorder.’ Not only are these disorders empathy disorders, but they are correspondingly reflected in alterations in the way young brains and nervous systems develop within these less-than-optimal environments. Consequently these degrees of alteration will manifest themselves along the continuum of difficulties these authors are describing.
The process through which these alterations occur should be no mystery to us. It simply reflects a flexible adjustment ability that allows an individual’s body to prepare itself for living in a less-than-optimal world as it develops in a less-than-optimal environment from its start. We don’t get to have it both ways in life. Tell a growing body that the world is hazardous and filled not with plenty but with deprivation, this body will change its developmental course to the best of its ability so it can survive in this same kind of world ‘later on.’
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My friends and loved ones tell me that I am happier when I am not working on my research or writing. They are right because I can live in a different ‘space’ that I can create that is separate from the truth. But my being happier does nothing to help anyone else. It takes willingness, fortitude and courage — as well as an abiding faith that my interpretation of current research can help someone else with a background similar to mine at least understand why they’ve never seemed to reach ‘the top of their game’.
As it is this ‘work’ wakens the darkness inside of me, wakens my woundedness, hurts me. I cannot be detached, objective, scientific or write from some remote place where this subject matter cannot reach or touch me. I have to write from a place of reality within myself, a place where I know — personally — what these authors are talking about.
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Practically speaking, I don’t believe that nature ever means for those of us who suffered in a malevolent environment from birth to do much more than survive until we can reproduce offspring. In the time of our harshest ancient history this is all that a member of our species could hope to accomplish. How can we wonder or be surprised when these abused infants grow up and recreate the same kind of environment for their offspring? They never knew any other kind of world, and even if they have experienced ‘better’ in their older years, ‘better’ is not what built their brains or their bodies in the first place.
I suspect that the DNA memories and their expression machinery that built us is far more ancient than the ‘happy, safe and secure memories’ that we expect in our supposed modern life. Those of us who were battered, beaten, neglected from birth had a very ancient set of DNA mechanisms activated because the very ancient memory of our species about how to endure and survive in a malevolent, hostile world is what we desperately needed in order to survive and endure ourselves.
So ours is not some long ago forgotten memory about being here on earth when hardship and trauma is all that there is. Ours is not only recent memory, but constant memory as this ancient survival genetic code is activated continually throughout our lifespan.
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But sometimes this ancient survival memory does not manifest in a smooth useful transition into the relatively benign world most others live in. As a species we survived the hardest times of our history by taking the most extreme measures possible to do so. If rape, pillage, murder and mayhem was what was needed to guarantee our survival, then that’s exactly what we did. If times were truly harsh and there were not enough resources for a mother to ensure survival for herself and all of her offspring, very tough choices have always needed to be made. When we see those same ancient genetically-linked behavior choices being made by over-traumatized women today we are puzzled if not appalled.
And, yes, I am including my own mother — ALL abusive mothers — in this descriptional category — though the choice is not usually conscious and is based on information their own bodies received in their early lives about the condition of the world and how best to survive in a dangerous one. Certainly my mother was beautiful, if that’s what we choose to measure reproductive fitness by. She was voted the most beautiful girl in her high school graduating class. She had, when young, an hour glass figure, thick wavy auburn hair, emerald bedroom eyes, a perfect complexion, full lips and a ‘vivacious’ personality.
But if someone had paid attention and known what to look for, the indicators were there of terrible trouble in the long term in her own stories written when she was 10 and 11 years old. SEE: My Mother’s Childhood Stories. It is obvious in these stories that she was creatively gifted, that her mind at that time was processing complex interactions as she tried to build a working ‘theory of mind.’ But, then, read her last story and tell me what you think!
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The younger we are when traumas occur the wider the range of possible choices a developing organism has at its disposal. As ‘windows of developmental opportunity’ close with age, the range of possible choices is equally diminished. A physiological response to trauma at a very early age (which begins to happen at conception if needed), I believe, activates the ‘worst of the worst’ case scenario genetic interrelationships that an organism has in its arsenal/at its disposal. Once these physiological choices have been made, a trajectory is established that is destined toward an ‘awful’ future. To the extent that these choices are force-made early in development, human higher level choice options will be replaced by faster, more automatic survival-based patterns that have been recorded in our genetic memory from our ancient experiences in a very dangerous world environment.
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Windows of developmental growth opportunity are times of maximum flexibility and more open ended possibility. As time goes on and these windows narrow and/or close, flexibility is exchanged for ‘what works’ based on the nature and quality of early experiences.
Because all growth and development occurs in an interactional way, it is not possible to protect a developing infant from the consequences of extreme stress and trauma during the period of these growth windows EXCEPT to not allow the infant to be exposed to these experiences in the first place.
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For those of you who detest the idea of playing a ‘blame game’, let me assure you that the consequences of keeping our heads buried in the ground of ignorance means that someone — meaning the victims of early neglect and maltreatment — will be paying the price of having an altered body and an altered life due to naturally occurring early developmental adjustments to exposure to a malevolent, hazardous and toxic world. I believe that as time goes on and as we begin to not only chew on but to digest the impact of trauma on developing people, we will find that about 85% of serious lifelong negative experiences in adulthood can be traced to adjustments bodies and brains were forced to make under stress of traumas experienced particularly up to the age of 2. That fact would lead us to the startling realization that much of adulthood negative experience could be entirely prevented with completely adequate early caregiving of infants and young toddlers.
The problem is complicated by the fact that approximately 45% of our current adult population was forced to make adaptations within their own inadequate or partially (and yet significantly) inadequate years of development themselves. That means these people often have no clue about what they missed because they don’t even know what they needed ‘back then’, and therefore cannot possibly know how to make it better for their own offspring.
It also means that trying to convince this 45% that there was and is a better way to build a human brain and body becomes an almost insurmountable task. Adequate parenting has far less to do with what we might intend than it does with what we actually do. Infants do not magically grow up and then receive the best human brain that our species’ advanced evolution might have to offer them. These advanced brains are consequences of the best early infant interactions caregivers can provide. And because we are a social species, the end product of our adult brain is formulated by our early social interactions.
To the extent and degree that ‘something is missing’ during these early growth windows of development, we are consequently ‘socially deprived.’ Believe me, when researchers translate their findings of any kind of animal research to the human realm, they are describing for us the possible (and probable) result of a range of isolation-based experiences and their resulting consequences. For the fullest possible range of advanced human brain potentials to be realized, early infant and toddler experiences must be of the highest quality, taking place in a dependably safe and secure setting. Anything less than this ideal will result in some form of genetic-memory alterations that are a depletion of the highest potential toward adaptation to life — in infancy and in the future — in a hostile world.
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We can boil all of this down to the simplest of statements: Less-than-optimal infancy = less-than-optimal brain development in, by and for a less-than-optimal world = less-than-optimal adulthood.
Should all adults be equally free to tamper with the nitroglycerin-like explosive potential of genetic adaptations possible in our human gene pool? Right now, our society answers that question, “Yes.” At the same time we also say that we have no, or very little control over the societal ills of child abuse, domestic violence, rape, crime, addictions and the origination of a wide range of so-called mental illnesses.
Reproductive fitness indicators are NOT negative. They exist on continuums related to every single vital aspect of our species including such things as creative expression in dance, art, music, humor, verbal ability, memory, perseverance, focus, stamina, exploration — among all the others.
In my boiled down version of what ails adults I will simply state that all of the above merely represent degrees of well-being versus ill-being. All of the above are simply manifestations of how fit the world is and how fit we are to reproduce in it because all of the above are specifically linked to our species’ ‘reproductive fitness indicators’.
Early interactions with the environment from conception particularly to the age of 2, signal our entire genetic makeup to pick a direction of development based on incoming information. I see it no differently than if we were putting together a team to play a sport. Finding the best talent for one sport is different than finding the best talent for a completely different sport, but the choices still have to be made from a pool of available talent.
Each of us has a unique array of ‘reproductive fitness indicators”, but they are still linked to what is possible within our human gene pool. The problem comes when enough traumatic stress is applied during the developmental growth window for any one of our indicators so that indicator becomes a signal not of health and vital well-being for the member of the species in interaction with its environment, but becomes rather an indicator of reproductive unfitness in a less-than-optimal world.
All of our so-called ‘mental illness’ genetic and gene expression combinations seem to be directly linked in their origin to reproductive fitness indicators. Remember above when I mentioned that I believe 85% of our adult problems could be prevented if early experiences were optimal for optimal development of the individual before the age (at a minimum) of two? That would leave what I would guess is a 15% group that would end up with some kind of reproductive fitness indicator deficit no matter what the quality of early care would be. That is because we carry within our human genome a collection of fitness indicator genes that can appear and combine in such a way that results will never be optimal. That still seems to be a fact of life, though genetic research may well be able to mitigate those factors in the future.
We can celebrate the amazing potential adaptive abilities that exist for us as a species. At the same time we must realize that how we raise our offspring — in every way — affects how these abilities manifest and express themselves. We cannot bear and raise our offspring with impunity. The ability to flexibly adapt to our environment has always been our greatest asset. We need to understand what reproductive fitness indicators are and how they were influenced during the crucial stages of our development so that they reflect not only our individual fitness for reproduction, but also directly reflect the fitness of the environment we are bearing our young in.
We can ‘zoom in, zoom out’ all we want to as we consider these factors, but we cannot escape the fact that how a fetus, an infant, and a toddler is treated on all levels will affect the trajectory of their development with the end result that a deficit of care will reflect a deficit in development. The only way we can change our perspective is to admit to ourselves and accept the fact that if we allow deficits to occur in early development, we are perfectly willing to accept the lifelong negative consequences that originate as a result. We can never completely isolate ourselves from our species or from the total environment we all life in.
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Your comments are welcome and appreciated. Post to be continued….
Stop the Storm 