Posted by Melia Dicker on Mar 11, 2010 - 03:54 PM
It makes sense that parents who make their children's decisions for them don't allow them to develop the cortex, the center of "planning complex cognitive behaviors, personality expression, decision making and moderating correct social behavior," according to Wikipedia. Fortunately, the brain may be able to bounce back, so parents, please give your children the room to make their own way!Overprotective parents inhibit more than their kids’ freedom: they may also slow brain growth in an area linked to mental illness.
Children whose parents are overprotective or neglectful are believed to be more susceptible to psychiatric disorders—which in turn are associated with defects in part of the prefrontal cortex….
...Narita’s team found that those with overprotective parents had less grey matter in a particular area of the prefrontal cortex than those who had had healthy relationships. Neglect from fathers, though not mothers, also correlated with less grey matter.
This part of the prefrontal cortex develops during childhood, and abnormalities there are common in people with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.
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