Trauma, extreme stress, and chronic stress cause changes in the neurocircuitry of your brain, in both the functional connectivity and in the size of various parts of your brain.
This video explains some of these changes, how the hippocampus size changes, and the negative effects of the catabolic steroid hormone called cortisol.
The good news is, some of these changes are reversible with mind-body therapies.
Video description:
Scientists are becoming increasingly aware of how life experiences can change both the physical structure and the function of the brain.
Since a discovery in the mid-1990’s that the hippocampus—a brain region important for memory—is reduced in size in many combat veterans, research has exploded over how traumatic events can affect different regions of the brain.
This story highlights recent work by Victor Carrion’s team at the Stanford University Early Life Stress Research Program that shows how adverse events in childhood can make an early mark on brain function.
