Study on violence in adolescence indicates correlation between exposure to violence and operation of neural circuits
Brain Institute of RS (BraIns) researcher, Dr Augusto Buchweitz went to Washington (USA) to present a report of Projeto VIVA – Vida e Violência na Adolescência (Viva – Violence and Vitality in Adolescence) to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)’s Department of Education and Infrastructure. The meeting was on Sep 18 and featured representatives of IDB, of the international development agency USAID and the third sector.
Buchweitz presented a summary of all the findings he has collected so far, which indicate a correlation between exposure to violence in adolescents and the operation of neural circuits associated with sociocognitive skills and attention. “The more adolescents are exposed to violence, the more atypical the operation of the neural circuits under investigation will be. Their performance in attention-related tasks will be decreased, too”, explains he. He also talked about new projects and future perspectives.
The project was funded by IDB and investigated the effects of violence and stress on adolescent learning and brain. Data for some parts of the study are being collected and it is expected to be concluded in Mar 2019. Available findings are expected to be published soon. The investigation is also being carried out in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in collaboration with Universidad Nacional de Honduras, since 2017.
