an interesting link:

[mary_j_59]

There was a debate on the Harry Potter Essays site about young Tom Riddle and whether or not he was abused as a child - also, to what extent he was responsible for his evil acts. In the comments, I brought up the cloth monkey/wire monkey experiments a psychologist had conducted in the 50s or 60s. I thought that psychologist was Skinner; it was actually Harlow, and in the early 70s a documentary was made about his findings and how they extrapolated to humans. Basically, it is true that extreme social isolation in infancy can cause permanent brain damage in humans. ("Can", not "does" - but I'd argue it *often* does.) Here is the link:

http://www.violence.de/tv/rockabye.html

I found this when looking up more information about cage beds, having checked the links on J.K. Rowling's website.