Christopher Bergland wrote an article stating that family problems during your childhood can stunt brain development, later possibly leading to mental health issues. A study was led by Dr. Nicholas Walsh, who used brain imaging technology to scan teenagers from 17-19 years old who experienced mild to moderate family issues from birth until 11 years old and found that their brain appeared to be smaller than the average teen. Due to the fact that these individuals appear to have a smaller brain, in most cases they will develop some sort of mental disorder, because according to these researchers the cerebellum is consistently smaller in all psychiatric illnesses. Although it is still not completely understood, it is clear that daily activities and our environment can dramatically change the structure, function, and connectivity of all four brain hemispheres for better or worse. Dr. Walsh's goal within his research was to determine the impact of exposure to more common forms of “family focused” problems. He found that arguments or tension between parents, physical or emotional abuse, lack of affection or communication between family members at a young age have a huge impact on individuals later in in life. However by limiting the exposure to adverse social environments during adolescence it may increase brain development and reduce mental health risks in adult life. The 58 teenagers who took part in the brain scanning were then drawn from a larger study of 1,200 young people, their parents were asked to recall any negative events their child had experienced from birth to 11 years old. As a result the participants who stated they had stressful experiences at the age of 14 were found to have an increased volume in the brain compared to when they were scanned at 17-19. “Dr. Walsh hypothesizes that
