The Brain

Extreme abuse / neglect

Perry, 1997

Abuse affects corpus callosum development

Oxytocin modulates amygdala activity

• 15 male participants• Intranasal puffs of

oxytocin versus placebo

• fMRI• Angry/ fearful faces• Fearful/ threatening

scenes• Oxytocin

significantly reduced amygdala activation

(Kirsch et al., 2005)

Paediatric-onset PTSD secondary to abuse

De Bellis, 2002

The role of stress hormones

Toxic Stress Changes Brain Architecture

Normal

Toxic stress

Prefrontal Cortex andHippocampus

Typical neuron— many connections

Damaged neuron— fewer connections

Sources: Radley et al. (2004)

Bock et al. (2005)

Brake failure: reduced size of frontal cortex in Antisocial Personality Disorder

• A pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others (DSM-IV-TR, 2008)

• Also referred to as ‘psychopathy’ and ‘sociopathy’

• Left hemisphere of the brain• Comparing violent/ non-violent

individuals• Left image is outter (lateral) left-

hemisphere; right image is inner (medial) left-hemisphere in reverse

• Left-medial-prefrontal cortex is outlined: shows reduced volume in violent individuals

• These are signs that something different is going on in the brains of pathologically aggressive people

(Narayan et al., 2007)

Kids Company Staff Team: Very high satisfaction was found in relation to

the following items, with strongly agreeing or agreeing to:

• Pride in work (97%); • Job dynamism (94%); • Staff capacity in doing a good job (96%); • Kids Company’s organisational participatory approach (95%) • Being proactive (92%).

Overall, Kids Company has developed an effective and innovative model of work with vulnerable children and youth. Its practices, experiences and expertise should offer a pool of resources and lessons for policy-makers and the statutory sector in general.

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Websitewww.kidsco.org.uk.