Psychiatrists have explained the mechanisms of changing brain structures when money is scarce
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- Psychiatrists have explained the mechanisms of changing brain structures when money is scarce
A chronic shortage of resources rebuilds the brain and reduces a person's cognitive abilities. All the details are in the Izvestia article.
The effect of stress on the brain
Marat Aginyan, founder and chief expert of the Benedict Clinic for Evidence—based Psychiatry, Neurology and Psychotherapy, explained that the brain has neuroplasticity, the ability to rebuild itself depending on tasks. In conditions of constant monetary scarcity, neural networks begin to intensively process signals related to food shortages, debts, and lack of resources. The importance network plays a key role in this process, which determines the priority of incoming information.
Prolonged lack of money activates the body's stress systems, increasing cortisol levels. As a result, the brain focuses on solving urgent problems, ignoring strategic tasks designed for the long term. According to the expert, poverty itself cannot be called a direct cause of cortical atrophy, but a combination of factors — chronic stress, nutritional deficiencies and bad habits — can cause functional changes.
"Any life tasks that a person faces change the structure and functioning of the brain — and this is an absolutely normal process. However, poverty includes several unfavorable factors at once: high stress levels, possible nutritional deficiencies, and exposure to various toxic factors," Aginyan said.
Cognitive deficits and the dopamine trap
Natalia Birina, a doctor of the highest qualification category, a psychiatrist, and a psychotherapist, emphasized that financial pressure is comparable in effect to the loss of 10 IQ points. Chronic stress suppresses the activity of the prefrontal cortex, responsible for planning, and activates the amygdala— the center of fear. This leads to the formation of the "short—term relief - delayed disaster" cycle, when a person chooses short-term spending or microloans to get a quick release of dopamine and reduce anxiety.
In conditions of scarcity, a person's planning horizon narrows down to a few days. The future ceases to feel like a real space, and the brain goes into survival mode "here and now". The transgenerational transmission of the trauma of poverty also has a significant impact, when previous generations' attitudes about the insecurity of money block the possibility of improving the financial situation in the present.
"The scarcity trap holds a person not through a wallet, but through neurobiology and conditioned reflexes, forcing them to see only threats and miss opportunities. The goal of therapy is not to cure poverty (this is impossible), but to restore to the patient the ability to choose between the immediate and the important, between shame and dignity, between impulse and pause," Birina said.
Methods of restoring control
To restore self-control, doctors use step-by-step stabilization protocols. The first step is physiological support: normalization of glucose and water levels in the body, as the prefrontal cortex is extremely sensitive to energy deficiency. Cognitive interventions are possible only after the physical condition has stabilized.
Therapy involves working with the locus of control through small actions and learning the skill of metacognitive pause. Patients are taught to separate physiological signals and emotional panic using breathing techniques. The success of the process lies in restoring the ability to withstand anxiety without taking impulsive actions, which gradually helps to form new neural connections.
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