The link between brain size and deprivation has remained a contentious subject in the early years since MP Graham Allen’s Early Intervention report featured images of a ‘normal’ and ‘neglected’ brain (see box). However, a study by academics at King’s College London has found that severely neglected younger children may end up with smaller brains.
The study followed 67 children who spent time in Romanian orphanages during the rule of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu in the late 20th century and were subsequently adopted by British families after he was overthrown in 1989.
As part of a larger project looking at children from the orphanages which has been running since the early 1990s, the study saw MRI scans carried out on young adults who had been exposed to ‘severe deprivation’ in institutional care in Romania.
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