Lane Gregory, a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, covered a very disturbing story last week. "The Girl in the Window" follows the discovery and subsequent adoption of yet another feral child, a young girl named Danielle, whose development was arrested—not by violent physical abuse—but by something much more subtle that is every bit as traumatic and stunting to a child's mental health. That something is neglect. In this blog we've talked about Bruce Perry's The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog and have quoted a range of research to demonstrate how important nurturing relationships are to the healthy mental development of young children. Louis Cozolino, author of The Neuroscience of Human Relationships, also has a lot to say about why this foundation is so important, and an interview with him figures prominently in a recent article written for Vision titled "Building Resilience in a Turbulent World." Here is an excerpt from that article, which relates directly to cases like the one in Lane Gregory's story: Many aspects of John Bowlby’s speculations about infant attachment and its effects on brain development, as published in 1969, are now being confirmed by neuroscientists. Just as humans need nourishing food in infancy to develop healthy adult bodies, we also need nourishing relationships in infancy to develop a healthy mental outlook. “Optimal sculpting of the prefrontal cortex through healthy early relationships,” writes Cozolino, “allows us to think well of ourselves, trust others, regulate our emotions, maintain positive expectations, and utilize our intellectual and emotional intelligence in moment-to-moment problem solving.” In contrast, when these areas of the brain have not developed properly, we are particularly likely to have problems controlling depression, negativity and fear, because regulation of fear circuitry relies heavily on the attachment process. Cozolino sees a direct cause-and-effect relationship in his practice: “When you have inadequate attachment—and society isn’t really set up to allow people the time and the space to be present with their children in order to establish that attachment—then I think kids are more vulnerable. I don’t get a sense that there’s a lot of attachment security, certainly not in the people that I work with.” Considering these factors, it’s easy to see why positive early relationships help determine how resilient we will be as adults. But early attachments are not the only ones that affect psychological resilience. Among other close adult ties, bonds such as marriage can have a similar effect to that of childhood attachments, say sociologists. In fact, Cozolino remarks, “research shows that if someone with an insecure attachment marries someone with secure attachment, then after about five years or so there’s a shift in their attachment pattern to a more secure profile.”
While Cozolino's encouraging comments aren't necessarily addressing the most extreme cases of child neglect, there is certainly some proof of his assertion to be found in Danielle's story. How far she may eventually be able to come given the right circumstances, one can only guess at this point. But it's certainly a story one would hope Gregory will continue to follow. | 
