When children face difficult experiences like neglect, abuse, or long periods of stress, it can deeply affect how their brains grow and function. These early life stresses don’t just cause emotional pain—they can also change the brain in ways that lead to serious mental health problems later on, such as depression, anxiety, or even schizophrenia.
Until recently, scientists didn’t fully understand how these changes happen. But now, a major breakthrough from researchers in South Korea may offer some answers.
On August 1, a research team from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), led by Professor Won-Suk Chung, discovered a new reason why childhood stress can harm brain development.
Their research, published in the journal Immunity, shows that special brain cells called astrocytes may be removing too many important connections in the brain during times of stress.
Astrocytes usually help keep the brain clean and healthy. One of their jobs is to remove old or damaged connections between nerve cells, or neurons, so the brain can stay balanced and function properly. But when the body is under a lot of stress—especially during early childhood—things start to go wrong.
When we experience stress, the body releases stress hormones, like cortisol. These hormones help in short bursts—for example, by fighting inflammation or helping the body use energy—but if stress lasts a long time, the hormones stay too high for too long. This can lead to negative effects on mood, thinking, and mental health.
In this study, researchers found that stress hormones attach to a specific part of astrocytes called glucocorticoid receptors. This activates a protein in the astrocytes called Mer tyrosine kinase, which makes them start clearing away too many brain connections—even the healthy ones.
The loss of these important connections can damage how the brain processes thoughts, emotions, and social interactions.
To test this, the scientists used mice that had been separated from others during early life. This social isolation caused stress and made the mice produce high levels of stress hormones. The researchers found that the astrocytes in these mice became overly active, removing more connections than they should have.
Interestingly, this didn’t happen in microglia, another type of brain cell that also helps with cleanup. This shows that astrocytes respond to stress in a very unique way.
What’s even more important is that when the scientists tested this process using human brain cells grown in the lab, they saw the same thing. Human astrocytes also responded to stress hormones by removing too many connections. This suggests that the same harmful process likely happens in people who experience childhood trauma or long-term stress.
Professor Chung said that this discovery helps explain how early life stress can lead to brain-related diseases. Until now, it wasn’t clear how stress caused long-lasting mental health problems. Now, it seems that overstimulated astrocytes could be a major part of the answer.
In the future, this research may help doctors develop new treatments for mental health conditions that begin in childhood. Instead of only focusing on symptoms, scientists may start creating ways to control how astrocytes respond to stress, helping to protect the brain during critical stages of development.
This discovery brings us one step closer to understanding how emotional stress can physically reshape the brain—and gives hope that we might one day be able to stop or even reverse that damage.
If you care about mental health, please read studies about 6 foods you can eat to improve mental health, and B vitamins could help prevent depression and anxiety.
For more health information, please see recent studies about how dairy foods may influence depression risk, and results showing Omega-3 fats may help reduce depression.
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