Animal studies show that social isolation during adolescence can lead to brain development disorders

A new study in the United States found that if female mice were isolated during puberty, their prefrontal cortex in the brain would develop atypical, and in adulthood, they would have excessive dependence on some habitual behaviors, which is believed to be related to addiction and obesity Neurons in the brain form a variety of neural networks through synapses, which are located on the dendritic spines on the surface of nerve cells, and are the structural basis of brain information transmission In the first few years of brain development, a large number of dendritic spines are produced, and then after continuous "pruning" by external stimulation and learning, neural networks are finally formed Puberty is the key stage of brain development At this time, the neural network will gradually become more accurate through "pruning", some connections will be strengthened, others will be eliminated Previous studies have shown that this stage of social behavior has a significant impact on brain development If the dynamic changes of dendritic spines are abnormal, it may lead to nervous system diseases In order to determine the long-term effect of social isolation on neurobehavior in adolescence, researchers selected female mice in adolescence, isolated them and fed them, and reintegrated them into social environment in adulthood, according to a study published in the Journal of neuroscience The results showed that the social isolation in adolescence would damage the brain and behavior pattern in adulthood, which was related to the abnormal proliferation of dendritic spines in the prefrontal cortex of mice The researchers believe that this finding may provide new ideas for the treatment of related nervous system diseases in the future by fine-tuning the brain during adolescence.