Study reveals spanking may affect brain development of a child ANI | Updated: Apr 13, 2021 07:46 IST Cambridge (Massachusetts) [US], April 13 (ANI): A recent study by Harvard researchers stated that spanking may affect a child's brain development in similar ways to more severe forms of violence. The research, published recently in the journal Child Development, builds on existing studies that show heightened activity in certain regions of the brains of children who experience abuse in response to threat cues. The group found that children who had been spanked had a greater neural response in multiple regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), including in regions that are part of the salience network. These areas of the brain respond to cues in the environment that tend to be consequential, such as a threat, and may affect decision-making and processing of situations.