A recent research project looked into how early life stress affects brain development. By experimenting on rats, they found that female rats who were exposed to a lot of stress in their early life had very different pathways in their brain than those rats who were not exposed to such stress. The areas affected are those that impact depression and anxiety. Researchers hope to use this information to develop and test new ways of preventing or treating these symptoms.
Early life social stress has long-term impact on brain networks in rats – Science Daily