2022-05-22

你也许认为，孩子不听话，打两下屁股不算体罚，然而新研究发现，打屁股对儿童大脑发育产生的负面影响和暴力虐待几乎是一样的。

Spanking1 may affect a child's brain development in similar ways to more severe forms of violence, according to a new study led by Harvard researchers.

哈佛大学研究人员领头的一项新研究表明，打屁股对儿童大脑发育的影响，可能与更严重的暴力虐待造成的后果类似。

The research, published recently in the journal Child Development, builds on existing studies that show heightened activity in certain regions of the brains of children who experience abuse in response to threat cues.

这篇最近发表在《儿童发育》期刊上的论文基于现有的一些研究，这些研究发现，遭受虐待的儿童在应对威胁时大脑的特定区域活动会增强。

The group found that children who had been spanked2 had a greater neural3 response in multiple regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). These areas of the brain respond to cues in the environment that tend to be consequential4, such as a threat, and may affect decision-making and processing of situations.

研究团队发现，打屁股会增强儿童大脑前额叶皮层多个区域的神经反应。大脑的这些区域会根据环境中的威胁等信号做出反应，并可能影响儿童的决策以及对局势的分析能力。