Childhood Maltreatment and Its Association to Learning and Memory in Adulthood.

摘要

Childhood maltreatment has been associated with multiple adverse longitudinal outcomes and can extend beyond physical and psychological harm. It can in fact influence the development of specific brain regions, the most prominent of which for the purposes of our project potentially being the hippocampus. The hippocampus has been associated with memory, learning, and memory consolidation. Therefore it is suspected that changes towards the hippocampus would alter cognitive functioning which can extend into adulthood. It has been suggested that the process by which stress and trauma cause damage to this particular region is through the dysregulation of the HPA-axis and eventual excitotoxic effects glucocorticoids can have on the hippocampus. In order to better understand the association between childhood maltreatment and impairments in cognitive functioning in survivors of maltreatment we must determine what factors directly influence hippocampal development. Therefore, we intend to extend previous research by determining which factors govern whether an adult with a history of child maltreatment will demonstrate memory and learning impairment.