''The brains of adult survivors are fragmented and resemble a hard drive on a computer that has crashed.''

How child abuse and neglect damage the brain


Until recently, mental health clinicians could only speculate on the ways that abuse and neglect damage a child's developing brain. But a series of ground-breaking studies in neuroscience conducted over the last decade are allowing researchers to pinpoint the actual changes in children's brains caused by traumatic experience.


http://www.snapnetwork.org/psych_effects/how_abuse_andneglect.htm