The scenario is all too common—children who are abused develop an attachment to their abuser that interferes with their desire to seek help or leave the situation. Experts have struggled to understand this seemingly destructive behavior, but the underlying causes have remained hidden. Now new research from scientists who study attachment in rats offers insight into what may be happening in abused children’s brains.
Rats are especially responsive to smells during infancy, which may help foster the parental bond. Psychologist Regina M. Sullivan of New York University showed in 2000 that young rats are drawn to almost any odor, even when the odor is associated with a stressful stimulus, such as a mild heat shock. In other words, baby rats are attracted to the very thing that hurts them, rather than being repelled as older rats would be.
What is happening in the young rats’ brains to foster attachment instead of aversion or fear? In a new paper in Nature Neuroscience, Sullivan and Gordon Barr, a psychologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, found the answer in the rats’ amygdala, a brain region associated with anxiety and fear. In the amygdala of rats attracted to the aversive odors, there were lower than normal levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine. This lack of dopamine activity may have turned off their brain’s fear response, enabling attraction to take place instead. A similar mechanism may occur in abused children, Sullivan says, although how much the amygdala is involved with early human attachment is unclear. Barr suggests this behavior probably evolved as a survival tactic. “The animal has to be able to survive, which means it has to be attached to its caregiver no matter what the quality of care,” he says.
This article was originally published with the title Abuse and Attachment.
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10 Comments
Add CommentThat is too elementary and does not sound right. The chemicles in a rat's brain works in a different direction than it does in more advanced species like humans. Human children are trapped in a relationship until their thinking (fight or flight) responses develops to the point where they can figure out how to get out of the relationship. When they convence themself they can survive on their own, they take flight.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou may learn more if you limit your experiments to the human species and you can do that without cutting into their brain or tramatizing them for life.
Hmmm. While I admit children are not rats, one needs to take into account that the human brain is not fully developed until age 21 or 22. In fact, the frontal lobe, which includes the prefrontal cortex, is the last part of the brain to develope. A crucial deliniation indeed, as this area of the brain specifically governs "impulsivity, judgment, planning for the future and foresight of consequences."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTherefore, it is quite improbable that a child would "figure out how to get out of the relationship - convince themself they can survive on their own and take flight": They can't!
What they do do, however, is learn how to survive the best way they can; every child is different and will acquire differnt ways of coping. In my case, I developed alters, 7 of them.
Therefore, James, please take the time to research the stages of biological and psychological development along with how child abuse affects these states before you ever make such a statement again!
LF
See: http://www.abanet.org/crimjust/juvjus/Adolescence.pdf
Are there any studies on the use of cell phones for predators to groom their victims? For example, being on the cell phone literally "all night" with the victim supposedly asleep and the predator using this technology to groom or program the child/victim?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAre there any studies of cellphone use by predators to groom their victims. For instance, being on the cellphone literally all night with the victim supposedly sleeping -- i.e. using the cellphone as a means to mind control and program victims.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn my case, I left the house early as possible, not feeling loved. I went and found friends, went to the beach....Thank goodness We lived in San diego...Before it was developed. The abuse I had was emotionally abandented. In other words, my Mother would not talk with me and told me she did not like GIRLS but loved my three Youngest brothers. She told me I was stupid and that she should have flused me down the toilet, when I was born!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI just did not want to be where I wasn't wanted. So...soon as I could I left every day since the age of four or five. Wow!!
I am 79 now and raised Five beautiful girls and they were treated equaly. Almost to a falt, I suppose. So I think we learn from our parents mistakes...How to treat OUR Children!
I was emotionally abused as a child by my Mother and Step-Mother and gravitated toward people who were bullies and treated me like crap. Looking back, I realize that was a very stupid thing to do and now I stay away from those abusive people. This article, however, really makes a lot of sense to me. I guess I gravitated toward them because I felt like I understood their motivations better than nice, genuine people. And yeah, in a way it was comforting to surround myself with people that reminded me of my Mother. So even though I say my decisions as a kid were messed up, I think this article is really onto something.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo the parent who stands as a god to the child, abuses her
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thischild almost to oblivion. The child continues to find ways
to bond, having no alternative. This adult child envisions
a Father in heaven whose creation is fatally flawed. Thus
this Son feels compelled to sacrifice himself as expiation.
Abusive parents validate child sacrifice to build empires.
It is not attachment that casues them to stay. It is fear. They are scared for their life that if they live they will die or such. The abuser plays mind control games
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo one has the right to be abused. Also when one is it does not make them stupid or it is not their fault. The abuser did what they did.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've never understood why people get this way. You would think that after spending a lot of time and money fighting over the issue in court, you'd want to get as far away as possible. http://www.discepolollp.com/
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