Neurological Correlates

White matter month continues with a study of white matter damage from verbal abuse.

Attorneys and advocates start your engines: here’s a study correlating childhood verbal abuse with compromised white matter integrity.

[Results]: Three WM tract regions had significantly reduced FA: 1) arcuate fasciculus in left superior temporal gyrus, 2) cingulum bundle by the posterior tail of the left hippocampus, and 3) the left body of the fornix. Fractional anisotropy in these areas was strongly associated with average PVA scores (rs = −.701, −.801, −.524, respectively) and levels of maternal verbal abuse. Across groups, FA in region 1 correlated with verbal IQ and verbal comprehension index. Fractional anisotropy in region 2 was inversely associated with ratings of depression, dissociation, and limbic irritability. Fractional anisotropy in region 3 was inversely correlated with ratings of somatization and anxiety.

Choi J, Jeong B, Rohan ML, Polcari AM, Teicher MH, Preliminary evidence for white matter tract abnormalities in young adults exposed to parental verbal abuse. Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Feb 1;65(3):227-34. Epub 2008 Aug 9. PMID: 18692174 doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.06.022

Usually verbal or psychological abuse is like soft tissue damage: tough to prove, but the worst kind of injury.  He said-she said, and, sadly, children are the ones exposed either directly, or watching from the top of the stairs, and totally ignored or discredited by authorities.  Here, by imaging and measuring white matter integrity, we can get a picture of the physical harm in the brain from being exposed to verbal abuse, and, moreover, the psychological/behavioral manifestations.

Get this Dauberted, and admitted as a basis to use tensor diffusion imaging for white matter integrity. Now, one may quibble and say the study numbers are too low, or that the Choi et al. paper only deals with children, who are in a formative time for white matter formation.  Maybe, and sounds like an expensive battle of the experts.  Roll the dice or settle?

If I were going to try this kind of case like Melvin Belli, the King of Torts, the Father of Demonstrative Evidence, I’d show the jury the roots of a tree — dendrites if you will — densely branched, strongly growing in rich soil with lots of sun and water and nutrients. Then I’d show the jury the roots growing in a toxic waste site – brittle, misshapen, pruned back. See? That’s what verbal abuse does: it creates a superfund site for neurons. Mr. Belli, upon his wins, would then fly the Jolly Rodger flag, and fire off a cannon from the roof of his San Francisco offices.

So, what’s going to happen when people who verbally abuse those with less power get sued and lose because there’s proof of harm?  Will the meek really inherit the earth, or at least the compensatories, consequentials and punitive damages?

If they’re smart, the verbal abusers will become Plaintiffs’ lawyers and take in 33% .

Anti-sociopath activism

Bloggers disclaimer: This is entirely musings, and should not be taken as any kind of advice for anything, least of all legal advice, and I’m not a Plaintiff’s lawyer, nor am I recommending that everyone immediately go out and sue whoever is a verbally abusive bully, although that might not be a bad idea.