아이의 트라우마와 노화

Children who suffer trauma from abuse or violence early in life show biological signs of aging faster than children who have never experienced adversity. The study examined three different signs of biological aging—early puberty, cellular aging and changes in brain structure—and found that trauma exposure was associated with all three.

those studies looked at many different types of adversity—abuse, neglect, poverty and more—and at several different measures of biological aging. To disentangle the results, McLaughlin and her colleagues decided to look separately at two categories of adversity: threat-related adversity, such as abuse and violence, and deprivation-related adversity, such as physical or emotional neglect or poverty.

 They found that children who suffered threat-related trauma such as violence or abuse were more likely to enter puberty early and also showed signs of accelerated aging on a cellular level-including shortened telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of our strands of DNA that wear down as we age. However, children who experienced poverty or neglect did not show either of those signs of early aging.

They found that adversity was associated with reduced cortical thickness—a sign of aging because the cortex thins as people age. However, different types of adversity were associated with cortical thinning in different parts of the brain. Trauma and violence were associated with thinning in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which is involved in social and emotional processing, while deprivation was more often associated with thinning in the frontoparietal, default mode and visual networks, which are involved in sensory and cognitive processing

These types of accelerated aging might originally have descended from useful evolutionary adaptations, according to McLaughlin. In a violent and threat-filled environment, for example, reaching puberty earlier could make people more likely to be able to reproduce before they die. And faster development of brain regions that play a role in emotion processing could help children identify and respond to threats, keeping them safer in dangerous environments. But these once-useful adaptations may have grave health and mental health consequences in adulthood.

 "A critical next step is determining whether these psychosocial interventions might also be able to slow down this pattern of accelerated biological aging. If this is possible, we may be able to prevent many of the long-term health consequences of early-life adversity,"

 

스트레스를 많이 받은 아이는 노화가 빠르다고 한다. cortical thickness가 얇아지고, 사춘기가 빨리 온다고 한다. 텔로미어도 짧아진다고 한다.

이는 진화론적으로 보았을 때, 어렸을 때 위험에 노출이 되면 빨리 성장해야 위험에서 벗어날 수 있다. 지능이 높아지고, 성장이 빨리 되기에 노화가 빨리된다고 한다. 

다음 실험에서는 intervention이 이를 막을 수 있는지 해본다고 한다.

 

reference

"Biological Aging in Childhood and Adolescence Following Experiences of Threat and Deprivation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," Psychological Bulletin (2020). DOI: 10.1037/bul0000270