Stress on the brain and developmental delay

Read Also

  Getting born and getting on with early life seems to present more problems for the male sex.  There is evidence that prenatal development of the brain is not as smooth,  that there are more complications,  in the male sex.  Even in the absence of any evidence of an X-linked disorder,  boys tend to have more brain disorders than girls.  For example,  boys suffer from transitory childhood enuresis (bedwetting) more often than girls.  The phenomenon is explained by pediatricians as a minor maturational lag of the brain circuitry controlling micturition (urination).   Boys present soft neurological signs more often than girls.  These tend to disappear spontaneously,  again suggesting a sort of maturational lag of certain brain systems.   Finally,  most developmental delay disorders affect boys more than girls -whether they be emotional,  language-related, or intellectual.  And indeed,  it could be argued that boys' brains behave as though they were subject to a slight generalized developmental lag and fragility,  even though there is no apparent lag in the development of the musculo-skeletal system or viscera.  Normal boys start to talk later than girls,  they have a slight lag in the development of their emotional autonomy,  they develop fine motor coordination a bit more slowly than girls.  One investigation presented data from a 4 year developmental screening program serving 1,735 children (940 male) from birth to age 6 years. The program was designed to identify children with potential disabilities or problems in the areas of physical health, dental health, hearing, vision, speech and overall developmental skills. Screening measures included the Denver Developmental Screening Test, the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation, and clinical assessments. It was found that girls consistently performed at a higher developmental level than boys. Boys recover less well than girls from prematurity or from pathologically low birth weight (taking into account the sex differences in expected birth weight of course).  For example,  these boys present more neurological signs, have lower IQs,  and do worse at school.  Another study investigated 648 children at age five who had been born before thirty two weeks of gestation (severe prematurity).  At age five,  the prevalence of handicaps was 21% in boys versus 7% in girls.   The sex difference remained statistically significant even after correction for gestational age and birth weight.   There have been several other reports of similar findings in humans.   Similar findings have been reported in subhuman species.   Male rodents are more affected by manipulations of the maternal matrix (alcohol,  toxines, malnourishment, etc).  Male juvenile rodents subjected to extreme overcrowding survive less often than females.   Male rodents left in complete isolation in a natural environment also survive less than female rodents.   A number of important longitunal studies have now reported that some of the main long term costs of marked stress during the foetal stage or around birth are 1) hypertension,  hyperactivity, type-2 diabetes,  and alcoholism.    It is surely not a coincidence that all of these conditions of poor psychological or medical health are markedly male-prevalent.