Isabella Sarto-Jackson was featured in the Austrian national newspaper 'Die Presse', in an article titled, “Missbrauch und Stress verändern das junge Gehirn” (translation: abuse and stress change the young brain), in the section 'Neurobiologie'. In this article by Cornelia Grobner, which was posted on 19 October 2024, Isabella explains how negative experiences in early childhood and adolescence can deeply impact the growth and development of the brain.

Isabella talks about neuroplasticity, or the ability of the neural networks in the brain to change their structure and function in response to extrinsic and intrinsic changes, and explains how abuse and stress during the early formative years could affect the normal growth and development of the brain. She mentions how there are phases of increased neuroplasticity of the brain, especially in the first few years of life, for instance when increased synaptic connections are formed in certain regions such as the language centres of the brain, and also during puberty when major restructuring processes take place in the frontal lobe which controls functions such as planning, impulse control, decision-making, and rational thinking. Events of severe abuse and stress, Isabella says, could affect the growth and development of the hippocampus which is a region of the brain that is responsible for learning and memory, and could affect the ability to learn. Furthermore, such negative experiences can affect the normal functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis which controls the body’s hormonal reaction to stress. Isabella explains how, as the regulatory mechanism of the stress hormone, cortisol, is disrupted, other neurotransmitters such as serotonin (mood, pain perception, sleep-wake rhythm) and dopamine (happiness hormone) are also released differently.

Read the Die Presse article at: https://www.diepresse.com/18977317/missbrauch-und-stress-veraendern-das-junge-gehirn