Physical home environment is associated with prefrontal cortical thickness in adolescents

Abstract

Biologically embedded experiences alter developmental trajectories in ways that can influence health, learning, and/or behavior. These systematic differences in experiences may contribute to different biological outcomes as individuals grow and develop, including at the neural level. Previous studies of biologically embedded experiences on neurodevelopment have focused on large‐scale institutional or economic factors (e.g. socioeconomic status [SES]) and psychosocial factors (e.g. caregiving behavior). Less attention has focused on how the quality of the immediate home settings, such as the physical home environment (PHYS), influences neurodevelopment. Moreover, no study has investigated these effects in adolescents, who undergo significant physical maturation and neurodevelopment that may influence how they respond to their physical environments. The goal of the current study was to examine whether PHYS quality is biologically embedded in the developing adolescent brain as evidenced by cognitive achievement and cortical development in 56 (48% female) healthy adolescents (14–18 years (M = 16.83 years, SD = 1.17). Using in‐home assessments of the physical home environment, anatomical brain scans, and indices of academic achievement, we found that adolescents who have more physical problems in the home (e.g. structural hazards, crowding, excessive noise, poorly lit) have thinner prefrontal cortices, which was associated with lower levels of reading achievement, independent of SES and psychosocial factors. By conducting home visits to assess physical characteristics of adolescents’ home, we highlight a typically overlooked aspect of the home environment that has relevance for adolescents’ cognitive and brain development.

Distinct aspects of the early environment contribute to associative memory, cued attention, and memory-guided attention: Implications for academic achievement

“…When using memory-guided attention, children can more effectively utilize their limited attentional capacity to focus on a particular task because they no longer need to use these resources to process external cues to guide their attention. The present findings that the physical environment was important for memory-guided attention and that memory-guided attention was in turn associated with academic achievement are broadly consistent with a recent study demonstrating that the quality of the physical environment was positively associated with cortical thickness and that greater cortical thickness was associated with higher levels of academic achievement (Uy et al, 2019). Together with our results, these findings highlight the physical environment and its association with memory-guided attention as important environmental and cognitive mechanisms explaining SES-related differences in achievement.…”

“…Additionally, work in deprived early environments as seen in institutional rearing which include both severely low levels of cognitive and perceptual stimulation has found lasting effects on working memory and attention even among children who were placed in high quality foster care before the age of 24 months (Merz et al, 2016; Slopen et al, 2012). Finally, both greater cognitive stimulation and higher quality of the physical environment are associated with greater cortical thickness in the middle frontal gyrus and superior parietal lobule, brain regions that support top-down attention (Rosen et al, 2018a; Uy et al, 2019). Together with our findings, these studies suggest that low levels of cognitive stimulation and poor quality of the physical environment may influence the development of the frontoparietal network, which may in turn contribute to SES-related differences in attentional function.…”

Early home learning environment predicts early adolescents’ adjustment through cognitive abilities in middle childhood.

“…Parents’ provision of language stimulation, learning materials, and activities also may facilitate children’s learning and decoding words, which heavily relies on a wide range of complex cognitive processes, such as focused attention and the abilities of short-term sematic storing and retrieval (Horowitz-Kraus & Hutton, 2015). Parental cognitive scaffolding, such as verbal and physical prompting, providing age-appropriate physical resources, and learning stimulation opportunities in child early years has a significant impact on the development of critical brain regions, especially the prefrontal lobe (Hutton, Dudley, Horowitz-Kraus, DeWitt, & Holland, 2019; Uy, Goldenberg, Tashjian, Do, & Galván, 2019), that serves as a neurobiological foundation for behavioral and emotional regulation abilities, such as inhibitory control (Aron, Robbins, & Poldrack, 2004).…”

Overcrowding and Hazardous Dwelling Condition Characteristics: A Systematic Search and Scoping Review of Relevance for Health

“…Finally, 12 records were excluded as the content selected for in the title and abstract did not correspond to the content in the full text. Thus, our record identification, screening, and assessment resulted in the inclusion of 100 records [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 ,…”