A new study conducted at the Stanford University School of Medicine shows the brain region responsible for integrating emotions and actions seems to undergo accelerated maturation in adolescent girls suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Boys within the same age group, however, seem to be unaffected by this metamorphosis.
Traumatic stress was found to affect the brains of girls and boys differently, as there are structural variations among youth suffering from PTSD.
The two different sexes were found to have different structures of their insula, the brain region responsible for detecting cues from the body and for processing emotions and empathy. Another function of the insula is to integrate a person's feelings, brain functions and actions.
Traumatized Girls Have A Smaller Insula
According to the study, of the people who went through a traumatic experience that caused a high level of stress, only some of them developed PTSD. Should this occur, patients might experience strong emotional reactions to the trauma they went through, from having flashbacks to avoiding contact with anything that would remind them of the traumatic event.
Among the psychological problems that could occur, social withdrawal and difficulty in sleeping or concentration are some of the most common.
Previous research suggested that females who went through a traumatic experience have a higher probability of developing psychological affection, compared to boys who go through similarly powerful emotional experiences.
However, such research has failed to understand the reasons behind this tendency. As part of the Stanford study, 59 participants who were between 9 years old and 17 years old, were subjected to MRI scans. There was a control group of 14 boys and 15 girls who did not go through any traumatic experience. The IQ level and age of the control group were similar to those of children who experienced trauma or chronic trauma.
Of the 16 boys and 14 girls who experienced trauma, 25 had gone through chronic trauma, which is repetitive exposure to the stimuli that affect the children's perceptions and psychological functioning.
The study showed that there was no difference in the children's brain structures within the control group, regardless of their gender. However, out of the youth who experienced trauma, the girls had an anterior circular sulcus — part of the insula — that became smaller than those of the boys' who had gone through similar experiences.
New Possible Angles: Differentiated Treatment
The results of the study are crucial when it comes to treating people who suffer from PTSD, based on their age and gender. The insula is usually documented to change throughout childhood and adolescence. Consequently, the smaller the region of the insula, the older the subjects.
The results of this study also suggest that, since a smaller insula is associated with a more mature brain, the girls who went through traumatic experiences were more likely to suffer a cognitive maturation, as opposed to boys.
The new understanding of the role that gender plays in this treatment diagram could help formulate more specific treatments for each of the categories of patients suffering from PTSD.
