How Is the Brain Affected by Gun Violence?

Researchers at Columbia University are using digital imaging techniques to investigate the ongoing effects of gun violence trauma

By: Dr. Karen Froud

Decades of research have shown that trauma can have devastating effects on a person’s ability to remember things, engage in new experiences, and regulate their emotions.

Until recently, Dickey Amendment prohibitions on federal money prevented researchers from investigating whether gun violence exposure has those same effects. Recent studies have confirmed that exposure to gun violence impacts many aspects of learning and development from early childhood, through adolescence, and into adulthood.

However, there remains a glaring gap in our knowledge: how is the brain affected by exposure to gun violence? This question matters, for several reasons.

If we can understand how brain function changes after exposure to violence, we can learn more about why trauma responses happen. In turn, that can help us develop more effective treatments and supports. Further, objective evidence like brain imaging can help the public and policymakers accept disorders that are otherwise overlooked or misunderstood.

For example, General Patton famously refused to accept that ‘battle fatigue’ was anything but cowardice. But decades of research showed that trauma exposure has effects on brain structure and function, and now we all have a deeper understanding of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

Executive functions are one set of skills that we know are affected by trauma. These are the kinds of skills needed for all daily tasks: planning activities; checking and adjusting your own behavior; and managing emotional responses to situations.

In the brain, executive functions are handled by the frontal lobes. This brain region continues to mature long after other aspects of brain development are completed — into the early 20s for most people. So, it is very vulnerable to stressful or traumatic experiences across the lifespan.

Now, at the Neurocognition of Language Lab at Columbia University’s Teachers College, we are measuring brain activity while our research participants play a simple game designed to tap into these executive functions. The data collected will allow us to evaluate differences in the brain’s frontal lobes, and we plan to compare this across people who have been impacted in different ways by gun violence.

The harms of gun violence extend far beyond those who are maimed or murdered, and we hope this study will provide the kind of objective evidence that can help us understand the true effects of this ongoing public health crisis.

We are currently piloting this study, and are seeking volunteers aged 18-35 who have or have not experienced direct or indirect firearm violence. Eventually we hope to obtain funding and extend the reach of the study to different age groups.

You can find out more by contacting our lab: ncllab@tc.columbia.edu — mention the REVEAL study.

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Dr. Karen Froud is Associate Professor and program Director of Neuroscience and Education at Columbia University's Teachers College. Research in Dr. Froud’s lab uses brain imaging to investigate questions about the neuroscience of language, learning, and cognitive processing across the lifespan, with an emphasis on multilingualism, literacy, and speech-language impairment. Her work centers questions of social justice, and emphasizes the importance of pedagogical and clinical applications for effective communication, language, and learning for all. 

Image of brain netting courtesy of Teachers College; photo of Karen Froud by Myra Luna-Lucero.