It has come to the knowledge from the researchers of the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital that the first study involved in the examination of the several brain activity patterns in the specified group of severely traumatized children has been able to differentiate its functions from that of the healthy children. It has also been affirmed in this respect that the study in a nutshell indicates towards the biological underpinnings of a specified disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder, known better in the abbreviate form of PTSD.      

There have been extensive studies that have been able to show that the children affected with PTSD cut or burn themselves as a way of coping with their feelings. In this esteem it has also been found by the researchers that the affected children who had also scratched or otherwise injured themselves showed stable evidence of unique patterns of activation in a portion of the brain involved in the perception of pain and emotions. However still confusion persists regarding the fact whether the differences in the segment of brain have been caused due to the effects of the interpersonal trauma, which includes in its broad gamut sexual or physical abuses that are experienced by the children. There may also be the effects of the pre-existing differences that tend to make some children more vulnerable to the escalation of PTSD following the traumatic events.

For the true identification of the disease there had been the utilization of an experimental technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI by the researchers. The device was utilized for the comparison of the brain activation patterns in 16 children affected with symptoms of PTSD with the patterns seen in 14 age- and gender-matched non-traumatized children as they performed a simple decision-making task. But what is the credibility of the fMRI analysis? The fMRI analysis notices the changes that happen in blood flow in gradual manner and also the oxygenation that draw a parallel with increased neuronal activity in different regions of the brain.

While speaking on the occasion Dr. Victor Carrion, MD, and eminent child psychiatrist at Packard Children's said, "Now we can see some real neurological reasons for the impulsivity, agitation, hyper-vigilance and avoidance behaviors that children with untreated PTSD often exhibit." "The fact that their brains appear to be working differently may indicate a deficit for which other areas of the brain are trying to compensate," he said.