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  3. Children who are verbally abused may suffer lasting negative effects in their brain’s ability to process language, researchers r

Children who are verbally abused may suffer lasting negative effects in their brain’s ability to process language, researchers r

admin2013-09-16  81
问题     Children who are verbally abused may suffer lasting negative effects in their brain’s ability to process language, researchers report. They say the new findings illustrate the seriousness of this type of abuse and should encourage greater action to combat it.
    Martin Teicher at Harvard Medical School and colleagues used an exhaustive questionnaire to select 17 people who had suffered severe verbal abuse in childhood but not other forms of abuse.
    Experts define verbal abuse as frequent critical comments that are intended to diminish the victim’s self-esteem, he explains. The team recruited 17 additional participants for the trial, who had suffered no such abuse.
    Brain scans revealed that those who had experienced verbal abuse had a 10% reduction in the size of a brain region known as the right superior temporal gyras(颞上回, 形成大脑半球的组织). compared with those who had not been abused. This part of the brain contains a section responsible for auditory(听觉的)processing and is believed to help the brain understand the tone of speech.
    Teicher speculates that verbal abuse might inhibit development in the superior temporal gyrus, perhaps by triggering a pathway that stops growth hormones from reaching it.
    The new experiment does not necessarily establish a causal link: the abnormalities could be a genetically inherited trait. But Teicher suspects the relationship is causal. For example, previous research has shown that victims of sexual abuse by non-relatives have decreased development in the visual processing parts of the brain, compared with people who have not suffered such abuse.
    The brain abnormalities seen in the verbal abuse victims appear to be related to reduced language skills, Teicher adds. The subjects in the study who had experienced verbal abuse scored about 112 on a test of verbal IQ. on average, while their control counterparts had a score of about 124.
    "I think they didn’t reach their full potential, " he says of the students who suffered verbal abuse and scored lower on the test.
    The results are important because they contribute to a growing body of evidence that the stress caused by early abuse can disrupt the normal development of brain "circuits", says Barbara Rawn of Prevent Child Abuse America.
    Teicher believes that parents have begun to grasp the negative effects of physically criticising their children, but he fears that parents may feel that no harm is done by frequently criticising their children with insulting comments.
    "Verbal abuse really has a long-term effect on a child, " says Rawn. "There’s a lot of incredible anger that shows up in kids that have been told they are worth nothing. " She adds that some children who have been verbally abused sometimes develop behavioural traits such as extreme aggression, or instead become overly obedient.  
What is Teicher’s concern about parents?
选项 A、Parents can’t be responsible for raising a child both mentally and physically healthy.
B、Parents haven’t realized the importance of stopping criticizing child physically.
C、Many parents may not realize the negative effects of verbal abuse.
D、Parents may not want to pay much attention to children’s mental health.
答案C
解析 根据题干关键词Teicher和parents定位到原文倒数第二段：Teicher believes that parents have begun to grasp the negative effects of physically criticising their children，but he fears that parents may feel that no harm is done by frequently criticising their children．with insulting comments…可知，Teicher认为家长已经开始意识到体罚孩子的不良后果，但是他担心家长们也许会觉得经常性地用羞辱性言论批评孩子没有什么坏处，即家长没有意识到恶言谩骂的消极影响，故C)项正确。
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