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Increasing data attest to the influence of early nurturing on development (JW Psychiatry Jun 13 2011). Researchers further investigated these effects by testing 92 preschool children in a laboratory paradigm and then measuring hippocampal volumes at school age.
The families were participating in a study of preschool depression. On a preschool-depression scale, 41 children aged 3 to 5 years scored as nondepressed, and 51 scored within the clinical range for diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD). In the laboratory task, children were given a present but told not to open it until their mothers had completed some paperwork. Observers scored how well each mother nurtured (e.g., told her child how well he was doing while waiting).
On magneti…