Maternal Separation

The baby mice, monkeys, rats, and giant pandas were not okay.

The Neuroscience of Separation - what adoption erases from the infant brain

“Conducting experiments on humans, exposing them to the considered risk factor of maternal separation, is impossible as it disagrees with the principles of research ethics.”

In his podcast, The Magic Wand, about things overlooked and misunderstood, Malcolm Gladwell invites us to use a magic wand to design an experiment, ignoring all financial, logistical, ethical, and practical constraints:

“An experiment allows you to answer a question that could never otherwise be answered. The experiment is so far-fetched, fantastical and offensive that you don’t usually even admit that you want to do it.”

The culture and health politics of what happens when you take a baby from its mother should be one of Gladwell’s magic wand experiments.

In studies from Slovakia to France and the United States to China, scientists have assessed the health and behavioural impact of maternal separation in mammals. According to one paper, rats and mice: “have long served as the preferred species for biomedical research animal models due to their anatomical, physiological and genetic similarity to humans.”

Using rat models, a study from Kerman University of Medical Sciences in Iran concluded:

[D]ue to changes in the midbrain, especially decreased activity of the mesolimbic system, as well as the creation of reward deficiency syndrome, MS leads to a group of medical signs and symptoms that collectively indicate or characterise an abnormal condition named “MS syndrome”.

A paper in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences reported animal studies documented how maternal deprivation produces enduring behavioural changes that are apparent in adulthood.

In yet another study, the authors concluded:

· The early life of most mammals is spent in close contact with the mother, and for the neonate, early maternal separation is a traumatic event that, depending on various conditions, may shape its behavioural and neurochemical phenotype in adulthood.

· Studies on rodents demonstrated that a very brief separation followed by increased maternal care may positively affect the development of the offspring but that prolonged separation causes significant amounts of stress.

· The consequences of this stress axis are expressed in adulthood and persist for life.

· Maternal separation in rodents, particularly rats, was used as a model for various psychotic conditions, especially depression.

All research in this area uses animal models because, as one researcher notes:

Conducting experimental studies on humans and exposing humans to the considered risk factor of maternal separation is not possible as it disagrees with the principles of research ethics.”

Of course, it is entirely possible to study maternal separation in humans.

It’s called adoption.

And limited human studies do exist. They highlight the long-term effects of permanent maternal separation.

Regardless of the intent or socioeconomic context, these studies integrate research and adoptee testimonies to contend that adoption triggers a series of biological, emotional, and psychological disruptions irrespective of the timing:

• Stress-related behaviours persist into childhood, manifesting as impulsivity, stereotypies, and emotional dysregulation.

• At-birth adoption is linked to increased stress hormones and behavioural withdrawal in infants.

• Early maternal separation disrupts the development of brain regions critical to emotional regulation, including the amygdala and prefrontal cortex.

• Relinquishment at birth constitutes a form of developmental trauma, even when adoptees are placed in loving homes.

• Relational disruption in infancy compromises the formation of secure attachment and affects the child’s sense of identity and safety.

• School-aged adoptees show elevated dissociative symptoms, including detachment and emotional numbing.

• The trauma of separation is somatically encoded — felt in the body even when it cannot be consciously remembered.

• Altering maternal-infant bonding through adoption leads to lifelong vulnerability, often mislabelled as behavioural issues or personality traits.

In adoptee circles, we talk about the ‘thousand-yard stare,’ a specific look many of us have noticed in our infant photos.

The term originated during WWII to describe the blank, unfocused gaze of soldiers who became emotionally detached due to extreme stress and trauma.

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