Childhood abuse was linked to widespread differences in brain structure in one of the largest brain imaging studies of its kind, UCLA announced this week. The research, published in Biological Psychiatry, analyzed MRI scans from 3,711 people across eight countries.
The patterns were strongest in young women and were more noticeable when reported abuse was more severe. The researchers stress that the study captured a single moment in time, with one scan per person, and cannot prove that abuse caused the brain differences.
