ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some basic information on what is currently known and understood about brain development and how this links with theories of attachment and emotional resilience. It explores the nature of stress hormones and brain chemicals and why these are important when we are thinking about transition. The reptilian brain is all about survival. The reptilian brain sits deeply at the core of our brains, with the mammalian brain between it and rational brain. Strong emotions are activated in the mammalian brain and it also acts as an early warning system, helping to control those primitive responses of fight, flight or freeze. The amygdala is located within mammalian brain and detects potential threat. The infant brain is instinctively programmed to make sure that parent stays nearby. Adults with shrunken hippocampus score lower on tests for working memory and verbal reasoning, and it seems that brain scans of very stressed children show their hippocampus to resemble that of aged person.
