Smacking your child can affect their brain development, study warns
Smacking your child can affect their brain development by altering neural responses to their environment, a new study warns. Harvard University researchers investigated the effects of smacking, known as corporal punishment, on the brains of 147 children. They found it may affect a child's brain development in similar ways to 'more severe forms of violence' and maltreatment. Children who had been smacked had a greater neural response in multiple regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), including in regions that are part of what's known as the 'salience network' (SN). These regions resp...